The Informal Discussion on the Training of Legal Professionals for Foreign-Related Affairs was held on of Xueyuanlu Campus on the afternoon of 2 December. President Ma Huade, Director of Academic Office Wang Haiyan, Executive Vice Director of the Graduate School Lu Chunlong, Director of Student Office Wang Hongsong visited the College to survey on the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs. Dean of the College Xie Zhiyong, Chair of the College Council Wang Fang, Deputy Dean Xie Libin, Deputy Dean Liu Chengwei, six teaching faculty members including Prof. Fei Anling and eight students attended the discussion. Wang Fang moderated the meeting.
On behalf of the college, Wang Fang first welcomed the heads of university administration and expressed her gratitude for their long-term attention and support to the College’s training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs. Xie Zhiyong made an overall report on the development and the achievements made so far of the training. At the same time, he put forward several developmental suggestions. He hoped to appropriately increase the enrollment of postgraduate students for Sino-German and Sino-American as well as the experimental class for internationalised legal professionals. He also wished to rely on the Research Centre for Ascertainment of Foreign Law to build a humanities laboratory for legal professionals for foreign-related affairs. In addition, he aimed to establish two foreign-related law journals to support the university’s research on the rule of law in foreign-related affairs and to promote Chinese law to the world. Xie Zhiyong then put forward a plan for the joint training of postgraduate students of the College. Xie Libin suggested that the university should strengthen the cooperation with the National Foreign Study Fund Committee and seek its support for the special project of training legal professionals for foreign-related affairs in the University. Liu Chengwei pointed out the difficulties faced by cooperation with American universities and showed determination to continue to explore Sino-American cooperation programmes and platforms in the future. He also put forward specific suggestions on the reform and improvement of the training programme for the experimental class.
In his concluding remarks, Ma Haide fully affirmed the opinions and suggestions made by the teachers and students at the meeting. He noted that the General Secretary of the CPC Xi Jinping stressed that “We must promote the rule of law both at home and abroad in a coordinated way, and accelerate the strategic layout of rule of law work involving foreign elements.” at a CPC central working conference on comprehensively managing the country according to law last year. The training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs is an important basis and guarantee for the strengthening of the rule of law in foreign-related affairs, which is of great significance for China to participate in global governance and strengthen the rule of law in foreign-related affairs. As the main territory of China’s training of legal talents, it is necessary for the University to cultivate a large number of foreign-law related legal talents who have an international perspective, know the international rules and are good at handling international affairs. He put forward several requirements for the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs in the College. First, revise and improve the training programme. Second, attach importance to students’ interning and practice in foreign-related law firms, arbitration institutions and international organizations; while, pooling both internal and external resources to bring foreign teachers and experts and scholars from foreign-related practical departments into the University to participate in the revision of training programme, curriculum design, textbook development and module presentation. Third, strengthen the ideological and political education of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs.
