[News] International Conference of Juris Master Education Held in the School of Juris Master in CUPL
International Conference of Juris Master Education, organized by the School of Juris Master in CUPL, was held from October 10 to 11, 2020. To meet the needs of COVID-19 prevention and control, this conference was held online in the working languages of Chinese, English and Japanese.
Xu Shenjian, Dean of the School of Juris Master in CUPL presided over the opening ceremony. President Ma Huaide of CUPL delivered a speech at the opening ceremony.
This conference was divided into three parts: Forum of Law School Deans, Forum on Practical Teaching, and Forum on Legal Professional Ethics Teaching. The guests shared their views with the participants around the reform of juris master education and the innovation of its systems and mechanisms.
The first stage was the Forum of Law School Deans, chaired by Prof. Xu Shenjian.
Judith McMorrow, Deputy Dean of the Boston College Law School, the US, first made a speech on the challenges and changes in American legal education.
John Smagula, Assistant Dean of Temple University School of Law, the US, delivered a speech on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects American legal education.
Pan Jianfeng, Dean of Peking University Law School, shared the school’s experience in the reform of juris master education, with a focus on curriculum setting.
Shen Weixing, Dean of Tsinghua University School of Law, introduced the international pattern of computational law and China's opportunities in this regard.
Wang Jian, Vice President of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, made a speech titled Goals and Tasks of Juris Master Education in the New Era.
Jiang Huiling, Dean of Law School of Tongji University, based on his personal background in transforming from a senior judge to a legal educator, expressed his opinions on what ability a law school should teach its students.
Cheng Lei, Deputy Dean of Renmin University of China Law School, made a speech on the offering and improvement of the practical courses of juris master.
Wu Shuangquan, Deputy Dean of Lanzhou University Law School, gave a speech on the status quo, problems and countermeasures of Lanzhou University’s legal talent fostering.
Wang Zhenfeng, Deputy Dean of the Graduate School of CUPL, introduced the university’s special training system for juris master.
Liu Zhihui, Deputy Dean of the School of Juris Master in CUPL, shared the school’s exploration of the integrated training model.
Prof. Soon Suk Kim, President of the Korea Law School Association and former Dean of Chonnam National University Law School, South Korea, introduced the achievements and challenges of the country in legal education reform.
Prof. Moon Jaewan, former Dean of the College of Law of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, expressed his views on the new challenges facing Korean legal education.
After this forum, Mr. Pan Jianfeng and Mr. Wang Jian made comments successively.
The second stage was the Forum on Practical Teaching, chaired by Prof. Xu Shenjian.
Prof. Kusaka Shinichi from the Law School of Kyoto Sangyo University introduced the experience of legal education in Japanese law schools by taking Kyoto Sangyo University as an example.
Prof. Masayuki Sakamoto from the Faculty of Law of Hosei University, Japan expressed his views on the relations between academic education and legal practice.
Wang Chenguang, Vice President of China Association for Legal Education of the Chinese Law Society and a professor of Tsinghua University School of Law, expressed his views on the practice teaching model of clinical legal education.
Liu Kunlun, Associate Professor of the Legal Education Research and Evaluation Center of CUPL, expressed his views on the development of Chinese legal practice teaching.
Liu Zhihua, Deputy Secretary-General of the Committee of Chinese Clinical Legal Educators under China Association for Legal Education, believes that clinical legal education is compatible with the cultivation of Juris Masters, because they both pursue application and practice as well as the cultivation of students' legal professional skills, legal thinking ability and professional ethics.
Guo Rui, an associate professor of Renmin University of China Law School, expressed his views on China's disability clinical education.
Prof. Robert Lancaster, Assistant Dean of Louisiana State University Law Center, the US, shared on the issue of students’ participation in the criminal justice reform in the United States.
After this forum, Prof. Xin Chongyang and Prof. Wu Rihuan of CUPL made comments successively.
According to Prof. Xin Chongyang, Japan’s legal education reform, drawing on the experience of that of the United States and combining with Japan’s specific circumstances, has been carried out in a low-key way but steadily, boasting many successful practices.
Prof. Wu Rihuan believes that practical teaching includes not only experiential clinical education, but also all teaching forms centered on practice or oriented towards training practical skills.
The participants had a free discussion around the issue of practical teaching. Associate Professor Tao Qian, Dr. Uland, and Dr. Li Lin of CUPL exchanged ideas with the speakers on the necessity of cooperative teaching between on-campus teachers and teachers in off=campus practice, the issue of undergraduate and graduate practice teaching, the parallel arrangement of theoretical teaching and practical teaching, and how to reflect the difference between juris master and master of law in the teaching of traditional course of civil law theory.
The third stage was the Forum on Legal Professional Ethics Teaching, chaired by Prof. Han Wensheng.
Associate Professor Guo Rui gave a report titled Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Law.
Associate Professor Liu Kunlun shared his conception of the legal professional ethics discipline system. He believes that the construction of a knowledge system is the core of the legal professional ethics discipline, and suggested strengthening the system construction of the legal professional ethics professional curriculum and professional practice curriculum.
Prof. Ding Xiangshun from Renmin University of China Law School shared his views on the issues about the opening-up of China's legal service sector and the professional ethics of lawyers.
Prof. Adrian Evans from Monash University Faculty of Law, Australia, introduced the globalized ethical framework.
Richard Wu, an associate professor of the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, gave a report titled The Construction of Global Legal Professional Ethics Course in Greater China.
Prof. Jaewon Kim from Sungkyunkwan University Law School in South Korea talked about the legal professional ethics education and qualification examination in South Korea.
Prof. Xu Shenjian shared his thoughts on legal profession ethics teaching.
After this forum, Prof. Ding Xiangshun and Prof. Yuan Gang from the School of Law of CUPL made comments respectively.
Prof. Ding Xiangshun believes that in view of the problems facing legal professional ethics, we should pay attention to and learn from the setting of legal professional ethics courses in such countries as South Korea and Japan. We should consider how to carry out legal professional ethics education in the context of quality-oriented education, as well as the proportion and weight of legal professional ethics education. According to Prof. Yuan Gang, this forum involved traditional issues of legal professional ethics, such as conflict of interest and confidentiality. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, online teaching, a new teaching method, also has an impact on existing professional ethics teaching.
The participants had a free discussion on the issue of legal professional ethics teaching. Dr. Shi Yacong, Dr. Zhang Jiahua, and Dr. Li Xiao had an in-depth discussion with the speakers on the legal ethics and curriculum setting in artificial intelligence, the necessity of delocalized and denationalized research and teaching of China’s legal professional ethics, and the issue of whether students’ trial and error are allowed in the practice teaching of legal professional ethics.
After the three forums, the conference witnessed its closing ceremony.
Liang Min, Deputy Dean of the School of Juris Master in CUPL, presided over the closing ceremony. Chang Baoguo, Vice President of CUPL, delivered the closing speech. Mr. Xu Shenjian made a summary of the conference.
In the end, the International Conference of Juris Master Education came to a successful conclusion.
