Law

The Law School of Sichuan University enjoys a long history. It was originally founded in 1903, known as KE LI GUAN or SHI XUE GUAN(official-training school).In 1905, the original SHI XUE GUAN was developed into Sichuan Law and Politics School by the officials in charge of education. Sichuan Law and Politics School further developed into a modern Sichuan School of Law and Politics in 1912, and was renamed in 1914 as Sichuan Public Special School of Law and Politics, with Yin Huanmen as the president. In 1927, Public Sichuan University was established with the association of the five special schools, including Sichuan Public Special School of Law and Politics, Sichuan Public Special School of Foreign Languages, Sichuan Public Special School of Agriculture, Sichuan Public Special School of Industry and Sichuan Public Special School of Sinology. Sichuan Public Special School of Law and Politics thus became the School of Law and Politics in Public Sichuan University. In 1931, Public Sichuan University, National Chengdu University and National Chengdu Normal University were amalgamated into National Sichuan University. In 1933, National Sichuan University set up the Schools of Literature, Science and Law while the School of Law in turn consisted of the Departments of Law, Politics and Economics. The total number of people in the Law Department of 1000, including the Judicial Group, which was the special judge-training program authorized by the nation’s Judicial and Administrative Department. The Law Department at the time had a large number of professors who had studied in America, Europe or Japan, such as Xie Shengtang and Zhao Nianfei of criminal law, Xi Qianchang, Zhu Xianzhen, Hu Yuanyi and Ning Boqing of civil and commercial law, Hu Gongxian of constitutional and administrative law, Liu Shichuan of international law, Yu Qunzong of land law, Long Shourong of procedural law, Yang Lansun of the organic law of the courts, etc. New courses were also offered such family law, maritime law, succession law, company law, negotiable instruments law, enforcement law, bankruptcy law, land law, etc. Number of influential works on law were published.

In the early 1950s, students from the Law School of Sichuan University were sent to judicial departments to participate in the works of judicial reform and practice. In the second half of 1952, with the decision of Southwest Military and Political Committee and the Culture and Education Department, the Departments of Law and Politics of Sichuan University, together with the law and politics departments of Chongqin University, Yunnan University and Guizhou University were merged into the Southwest Revolution University, forming its Politics and Law Department. In 1953, Southwest Politics and Law College was established, and the legal education in Sichuan University came to a cease.

In 1983, with the approval by the State Education Committee, Sichuan University appointed Guo Binghe, Qin Dadiao and Zhao Bingshou to the preparation group for the restoration of the department of law. The Department of Law was formally restored in Sichuan University in 1984, Students were enrolled in the same year for bachelor’s degree in law. Mater’s program in criminal law was approved by the State Education Committee in 1985, Professor Wu Liucun, Zhou Yingde, Zhao Bingshou, Huang Zhaojong, Chen Kangyang and Xu Jianguang worked as the supervisors in Chinese criminal law, international criminal law, legal logic, criminal detection, techniques of material evidence respectively. In 1994, Sichuan University and Chengdu Science and Technology University merged into Sichuan Union University, and the School of Law was restored simultaneously, and two departments of law and philosophy hosted in the School. At the end of 1998, Sichuan Union University was again renamed as Sichuan University, hence the restoration of the title of the School of Law, Sichuan University, which hosted the Department of Law and the Demographic Research Institute. The present Party Secretary of the School of Law is Gu Lifeng,Professor, the vice party secretary is Jang Hua, while the dean is Tang Lei,Professor, the vice deans Li Ping ,Professor,and Li Zan,Professor.

There are presently the following institutes in the Law School: the Department of Law, Demographic Research Institute, Chuanda Law Firm, Legal Research Institute, Comparative Law Center, IP Law Research Institute, Judicial Reform Research Center and Criminal Detection Research Center. Teaching research offices are jurisprudence, constitutional and administrative law, criminal law, civil and commercial law, economic law, procedural law and international law. The Law School offers the bachelor’s program in law and the master’s programs in criminal law, procedural law, civil and commercial law, demography, constitutional and administrative law. The School is also approved to confer the title of master’s degree in economic law, master’s degree in jurisprudence, master’s degree in law, and doctor’s degree in procedural law. With 15 professors, 26 associate professors, 27 master’s supervisors and 2 doctorate supervisors, the Faculty is the home of not only the national-renowned old experts like Wu Liucun in criminal law, Zhou Yingde in criminal detection, but also the young scholars like Long Zongzhi ,Zuo Weimin, Gu peidong,Yang quanming, Li Ping, Zhou Wei,He jingxi, Li Zan,Yang Suiquan,Yang cuibai,Xu jimin,Yu zhong, Wei dong.

With the tradition to pay equal attention to teaching and research, fundamentals and applications, the Law School is the base for legal talent training in Sichuan Province. Bachelor’s program aims to provide the high-level versatile talents with the systematic mastery of legal theories and knowledge, the good mastery of our national laws and the relevant policies of the Party as well as the ability to apply legal knowledge learned in problem analyzing and solving. Students will be provided with classes in the basic theories and knowledge of law, basic training in legal reasoning and legal practice, and the basic ability to apply legal theory and legal method in analyzing and solving problems and handling legal affairs. They should have obtained the following knowledge and abilities at graduation:

l Mastery of the basic theories and knowledge in different branches of law.
l Mastery of the basic analytic methods and techniques of law.
l Good knowledge in the national laws and the relevant policies of the Party.
l Knowledge in the theoretical frontier of law and the trend of the nation’s legal construction.
l Practical ability to apply the knowledge of law in problem analyzing and solving.
l Mastery of the basic method of document retrieval and literature search.
l Some ability to carry out theoretical research.

Other than the 14 required courses, more 30 selected courses are offered. And the credit system has been adopted since the year of 2001. The School takes good advantage of the comprehensive curriculum of the University, helping the students to broaden their vision by selecting courses from different departments and schools. Judicial officers with rich practical experiences and professional knowledge are also invited to be the part-time professors in the School. Trial auditing, moot court, legal consultation, social investigation, internship and other activities are organized for the students.

The full-time students presently enrolled in the Law School are 1700, 856 of which are post-graduates. Since the restoration of the Department of Law in 1983, over 2200 students have graduated with bachelor’s degrees and over 1000 with diplomas, over 100 of which continued their study as post-graduates, as well as more than 200 graduates with master’s degrees. Over 90% of the graduates work as lawyers, judges, procurators, legal consultants, governmental officials or teaching stall in law schools. Part-time training classes for master’s degree has been run since 1994, with more than 1300 students trained in the program. Besides, the School has been offering a reeducation training program for officers working in judicial departments. A new long-distance education program has started since 2001 through the Internet.

The Staff has undertaken 40 national and provincial research programs in the recent years, with the publication of over 500 papers and 60 books including textbooks and reference books.

The School highly values the domestic and international academic exchange, keeping long-term inter-university relationship with Washington University, Columbia University and St. Louis University in the US as well as with some Japanese and Russian universities. Every year we receive foreign experts to visit and teach, foreign students to study in the School. Number of regional academic conferences and cooperative researches have been organized. Dozen of teachers have been sent to the US, Germany, Britain, Japan and Russia to visit, study, or teach.

Staff members have joined China Law Society and its branches, Sichuan Provincial Law Society and its branches, over 20 of whom hold the positions of the vice president, the secretary general, executive director, director, secretary, etc. They often attend academic activities and big international conferences, submitting a large number of original papers. The School has the computer retrieving system, the database of laws and regulations, and the advanced equipments for video/audio, fingerprint analysis and expert testimony, which serve the teaching and research work well.

In the future, the School will carry on the tradition of the active style and the strict attitude in study, work together to make full use of the School’s advantage, to improve the level and quality of the talent training, and to foster the new and versatile high-quality socialist talents. The School will also keep on making greater efforts for academic research, to increase necessary investment and improve the general academic level. Meanwhile, in order to meet the need for the 21st century versatile talents, the School will make joint efforts with judicial departments to construct a teaching and internship base, and will cooperate with people from different circles to find new ways of running schools so that the Law School of Sichuan University could be made the high-level legal education and training base in Southwest China with different expertise and providing academic, practical as well as versatile legal talents.