In order to strengthen the construction of the discipline system of law in the new era and push the discipline of law of HUST towards the first-class one, on April 27 and 28, the School of Law of HUST held, in Mingde Lecture Hall, a seminar on the construction of the discipline system of socialist law with Chinese characteristics in the new era. This seminar invited 12 famous law experts from Renmin University of China, Peking University, Tsinghua University, China University of Political Science and Law, Wuhan University, Jilin University, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Southwest University of Political Science & Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhengzhou University and other nationwide famous schools of law, represented by leaders of the Law Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. President Li Yuanyuan, Vice-president Ma Xiaojie, the standing deputy secretary of the Party Committee, and Vice-president Xu Xiaodong attended the seminar.
Vice President Xu Xiaodong presided over the opening ceremony and President Li Yuanyuan made a cordial speech. Li Yuanyuan expressed warm welcome and sincere thanks to the guests. He pointed out that after years of construction and development, the School of Law of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has laid a good foundation and strength for discipline education. He hoped that experts from the jurisprudential circle could provide more help and guidance for the construction and development of the law discipline of HUST. According to Li Yuanyuan, promoting the rule by law in an all-round way is an important part of the Party Central Committee's the “Four-Pronged Comprehensive” Strategy, and HUST attaches great importance to the development of law discipline and will give strong support from the aspects of system guarantee and resource allocation. It is imperative to grasp the historical development opportunity of ruling the country by law, jointly promote the leap-forward and sustainable development of law discipline, and also contribute HUST’s wisdom and strength to building a socialist country under the rule of law and cultivating high-level legal talents with both morality and legal expertise.
Mr. Zhang Wenxian, the convener of the Law Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the former secretary of the Party Committee of Jilin University and senior professor of Jilin University, and senior professor of Zhejiang University, made a keynote speech. He firstly spoke highly of the development of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and said that he would strongly support the development of law discipline of HUST. Zhang Wenxian, taking reform and opening up as a time node, reviewed the development of domestic law discipline since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and made a brilliant speech around the "Chinese characteristics", "scientificity", "political nature", "national nature", "contemporaneity" and "openness" of law discipline in China.
Wang Liming, the convener of the Law Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the executive vice-president of Renmin University of China and the Yangtze River Scholar Professor under the Ministry of Education, made a special academic report titled Highlights and Shortcomings of the Draft of Personality Rights in the Civil Code. Wang Liming made a thorough interpretation of the Draft of Personality Rights in the Civil Code in terms of 10 highlights such as "effectively balance the relationship between legality and openness of personality rights", "clearly stipulate the right to claim personality rights", and three shortcomings such as "place the compilation of personality right after each part of the compiled property rights", "the personal information should be recognized as a right", etc..
The keynote speeches were presided over by Professor Pan Jianfeng, Dean of Law School of Peking University. Jurists shared new ideas and pertinent suggestions on the construction of the discipline system of law.
Professor Sun Changyong, member of the Law Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and former Vice-President of Southwest University of Political Science & Law, expressed his views on the relevant factors affecting the development of law discipline and on how to coordinate the relationship between "learning" and "innovation" in the development of law discipline.
Professor Yao Li, a leading talent in philosophy and social science under the National "Ten Thousand People Plan" and Vice-President of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, offered suggestions on how to construct a distinctive system of law discipline on the basis of analyzing the current orientation and existing problems of law discipline.
Professor Che Pizhao, Chairman of the Degree Committee of the School of Law of Tsinghua University, Editor-in-Chief of Tsinghua University Law Journal, and former Secretary of the Party Committee of the Law School, expressed his views on the relationship between discipline construction and talent team construction, how to plan the discipline construction for the long term and how to promote the distinctive discipline construction.
Professor Jiao Hongchang, Vice-President of the Research Association of the Constitutional Law of China Law Society, and Dean of the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), discussed some thoughts on the future trend of law discipline, combined with General Secretary Xi Jinping's specific requirements for law disciplines when Xi visited CUPL, and combined with the differences in the development of law disciplines between comprehensive universities and political law universities.
Professor Cai Lidong, the Yangtze River Scholar under the Ministry of Education and Dean of School of Law of Jilin University, had interpreted the meaning of world-class disciplines. Focusing on how to recognize the goals of first-class disciplines of law and the construction of law discipline, he proposed to use means of technology to develop law discipline, and had a great expectations on the younger generation.
Professor Miao Lianying, Vice-President of the Research Association of the Constitutional Law of China Law Society and Dean of the School of Law of Zhengzhou University, expressed his views on the discipline construction combined with his own experiences, including what is discipline construction, the relationship between the characteristic construction and first-class construction of the law discipline, and the relationship between the theory and practice of law.
Professor Peng Chengxin, former Vice Dean of Koguan Law School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, combined with his experience of visiting Harvard University, shared his views on the significance of interdisciplinary construction to the development of law discipline, and pointed out that the in-depth interdisciplinary development should be conducted and the training should be offered to those talents who have ideals.
Professor Pan Jianfeng, Dean of Peking University Law School, who presided over the keynote speeches, based on summarizing the essence of speakers' speeches, combined with the development status of Peking University Law School, pointed out that the development of law discipline in colleges and universities should always focus on the goal of "personnel training".
Finally, Professor Wang Xigen, Dean of School of Law of HUST and the Yangtze River Scholar Professor under the Ministry of Education, expressed his heartfelt thanks to all the famous experts who took the time to come to the School of Law of HUST to guide the discipline construction. The School of Law will promote the leap-forward development of the discipline of law in accordance with the world-class school-running concept with Chinese characteristics.
According to the arrangement of the meeting, the School of Law held an off-campus expert demonstration and appraisal meeting for authorized doctoral degree programs in the first-level discipline of law. The meeting was chaired by Nie Qingbin, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Law. On behalf of the school, Ma Xiaojie delivered a speech and issued letters of appointment to the expert representatives of the Advisory Committee on Discipline Development of the School of Law. Professor Ma Yanlin, Dean of Graduate School, Zhao Zhongyu, Director of Discipline and Development Planning Office, and Fang Mei, Vice-Director of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, introduced the construction of disciplines in HUST from different angles, and emphasized the necessity and urgency of increasing the number of doctoral programs in the first-level disciplines, and expressed clear support for the construction of law discipline. An appraisal panel composed of Zhang Wenxian, Wang Liming, leaders of the Law Discipline Appraisal Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council; senior jurist Li Long, senior professor of Humanities and Social Sciences of Wuhan University; Wu Handong, senior professor of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wenlan Scholar and former President of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, and all other experts attending the meeting, made an evaluation on increasing the number of doctoral degree programs of first-level law disciplines in HUST.
Zhang Wenxian believed that the current conditions for the construction of law discipline in HUST have met the requirement of the Ministry of Education on setting up doctoral degree programs of first-level disciplines, and hoped to continue to intensify efforts in discipline conciseness. Wang Liming believed that the School of Law of HUST has a strong faculty. He hoped to further improve the level of discipline construction, especially the cultivation of high-level scientific research achievements. The appraisal team also put forward some suggestions on talent cultivation, social service and characteristic conciseness, pointed out the direction for the follow-up development of the School of Law of HUST. The evaluation team members unanimously agreed to increase the number of doctoral degree programs of first-level law discipline in HUST.
