According the court chief, judicial efficiency has also been improved over the years.

"We have been making efforts to realize the high efficiency while handling court cases by creating special tribunals, recruiting more judicial professionals and simplifying the lawsuit proceedings," he said.

The three levels of courts in Macao now have 45 judges and 234 court staffs compared with 23 judges and 100 staffs in 1999. Those courts dealt with some 19,535 cases last year, more than double the figure in the first year of Macao's return to the motherland.

"Before Macao's return in 1999, all the court procedures were conducted in the Portuguese language. But a large part of our court clients cannot speak Portuguese," said Sam, adding that through years of efforts, Chinese has become an important language used in courts.

The number of interpreters or translators employed by the courts has grown to more than 40 from merely 12 in 1999. The Chinese language or both Chinese and Portuguese are used in 75 percent of primary courts in the Macao SAR.

Meanwhile, Macao has been engaged in judicial cooperation with the mainland and the Hong Kong SAR, Sam said. With the signing of three arrangements on judicial cooperation in civil and commercial proceedings, a legal framework for judicial assistance has been created between the Macao SAR and the mainland.

The return of Macao to the motherland has put an end to the existence of non-Chinese judges in China's territory, Sam said. " The Chinese people finally exercise effective jurisdiction over all its territory."