1. Evolution

The predecessor of China University of Political Science and Law (hereinafter CUPL) was Beijing College of Political Science and Law, which was established in 1952, suspended from operation in 1971 and restarted in 1978. In 1981, Beijing College of Political Science and Law was reorganized and renamed as CUPL.

CUPL was originally under the management of the Ministry of Justice, but is currently affiliated with the Ministry of Education. Since 2005, CUPL has been granted membership of in the "211 Project", which is a group of selective universities with access to special funds distributed by the Ministry of Education.

2. Location of, Surrounding Area and Transportation to Changping Campus

CUPL is composed of two campuses: the Downtown Campus of Jimenqiao which accommodates graduate programs other than the Juris Master (JM) program, and the Changping Campus in the suburb that accommodates both the undergraduate and JM programs. The distance between the two campuses is 36 kilometers.

The Changping Campus is located in the Northern suburb of Beijing, at the foot of the Jundu Mountain Range where the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Reservoirs, the Mangshan Forest Park and numerous other historical sites are found. It takes no more than fifteen minutes to arrive at Ming Tombs, the Ming Tomb Reservoir or the Mangshan Forest Park from the Changping Campus by bus, or just fifteen to thirty minutes by bike.

3. Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

There are fourteen schools or colleges in CUPL operating undergraduate and/or graduate programs that cover a broad range of academic disciplines besides law.

In 2006 to 2007 academic year, there are a total of 8, 240 undergraduate students enrolled in 10 schools and a total of 3,850 graduate students enrolled in 13 schools, respectively, at CUPL.

4. Faculty members

CUPL has a total of 817 full time professors. Among them there are 524 law professors, representing the largest law faculty in China. Around 10% of CUPL's full time professors hold either the diploma of Ph.D or Master issued by international institutions.

5. Library

The Library of CUPL has a collection of 1.55 million books, including 300,000 law books, which is the largest collection in this category among all libraries in China. The E-resources of Library include access to 23 databases including West Law, LexisNexis, HeinOnline, State Database of Chinese Law, Network of Chinese Journals and 8 databases developed by the Library itself. The Library's collection of both foreign law books and journals is the largest ones among China's libraries.

6. Experience in Initiating and Operating International Projects

CUPL has been a devoted explorer in legal exchanges with the international community since the very beginning of China's open door policy.

In the early 1980's, CUPL attended the Committee of Legal Education Exchanges with China (CLEEC) as one of its 8 member universities on the Chinese side. CLEEC's project lasted more than 10 years from 1982 to 1995. CUPL's young teachers who then participated in the early CLEEC projects have now become senior and reputable law professors.

CUPL was among one of few Chinese law schools that got permission to offer admissions to international students in the early 1990s and quite a few of the earliest international recipients of Chinese Doctoral and Master's degrees in law were graduates of CUPL. In the mid of 1990s, CUPL formed a partnership with the Law School of Temple University to conjointly initiate the first LL.M. program of U.S. law in China. Since this program was afterwards taken over by Tsinghua University, in 2005, CUPL and the University of Minnesota started another LL.M program as a replacement.

In 2002, CUPL established its School of American and Comparative Law. Among Chinese professors at this school, 8 of them have obtained JD degrees, 4 of those from Yale Law School. In 2004, the Chinese-German Institute at CUPL was founded with a consortium of five German law schools; it engages in exchanges of visiting students and scholars, workshops on comparative law and translation of German legal scholarship into Chinese.

In 2006, CUPL organized and hosted the China-America Law School Deans' Bilateral Conference, an event regularly sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools and the Ministry of Education of P.R. China. In addition to the above exchanges between institutions, there have been regular scholarship exchanges and co-operatives established between CUPL, Harvard Law School and Yale Law School since the 1990s. The achievement of CUPL's Roman law program is unique: the program lasted for 16 years focusing on introducing Roman law into China, including the publication of a dozen of Chinese translation of Roman law books from either Latin or Italian.

CUPL's contribution in translating foreign legal scholarships into Chinese is well recognized. In 1997, Mr. Jiang Zemin, former President of China, reached an agreement with the then US President Bill Clinton to found a new project named the "Presidential Rule of Law Initiative". A significant component of this initiative was to commission the translation of 100 classic American legal works into Chinese. CUPL was honored by being named the executor of this task: from 2000 to 2007, CUPL press has organized the translation and publication of the first 65 volumes in this project. With the sponsorship of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, CUPL has also organized the translation of 37 German legal books and textbooks since 1998. Since China's civil law is traditionally under the influence of continent law, the translation of German legal scholarship was appreciated by Chinese law students.

As of June 2007, CUPL's longest international program, the Summer Program in Chinese Law, co-sponsored by Duquesne University, has lasted for 16 years. The program is accredited by ABA and its course on Chinese Law is given 4 1/2 hours of ABA approved credits.