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Prof. Tibor Tajti: “There is a growing interest in Insolvency Law in China”

Prof. Tibor Tajti has been a Professor of Law at Central European University (CEU) since 2009 and is the Chair of the International Business Law Programme since 2016.  Prof. Tajti was awarded the CEU Distinguished Teaching Award in 2015 and the Dr. Elemér Hantos Prize in 2005 for promoting cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. In this short interview Prof. Tajti shares his experience of teaching at the China-EU School of Law in China and the reasons why he keeps coming back to CESL each year.

1. Why did you choose to teach in China and what attracted you to teaching at CESL?
I joined the ranks of the flying faculty due to two key factors. The first was the joining of my university – CEU, or Central European University – a truly international post-graduate and research-oriented university, becoming a consortium member of CESL in 2010. The second was my own interest not only in Chinese culture but more importantly in the developments of modern China grappling with the challenges posed by the gradually and cautiously introduced elements of market economy. Being an eye-witness of the similar but radically different transitory process in Central and Eastern Europe during the 1990s, I estimated that the importance of insolvency law – the course introduced and taught by me – will significantly increase as the reforms will progress. This has proved to be a true prognosis.


2. Why do you keep coming back to teach at CESL each year?
To a great extent this is due to the enthusiasm for the subject of insolvency law (containing also a block on proprietary [in rem] securities as best protections law can offer to creditors) of a considerable number of students. Through their questions during consultations, the in-the-break exchanges, email exchanges or the thesis-supervision process, I have been constantly updated on novel Chinese developments and real-life problems. I could have seen as ever newer insolvency-related problems surfaced; some repetitions of problems from Eastern Europe of the 1990s.


3. Given your experience with CESL, would you recommend that your colleagues teach in a foreign country, specifically in China?
Gaining teaching experience in a foreign country is rewarding for a number of reasons, especially in our globalized 21st century when understanding others, other legal systems, is not only needed but it also represents a strategic advantage which is appropriately exploited, be it negotiations, or legal reforms. Though similarly to comparative law, one could better understand one’s own legal system as well by facing the questions of Chinese, or students coming from other parts of the world. One would quickly be forced as well to realize that explanations based on old presumptions stemming from the western-hemisphere do not really work anymore in China, that is not only looking for the best test solutions offered by various legal systems on the global market-place but which is simultaneously developing competitive solutions as well.


4. Would you recommend our program to prospective students? If yes, why?
The growing interest from the side of Chinese students is the fact that should speak for itself if the program is assessed from the perspective of future Chinese students. The China that is doing business on the international markets requires lawyers with in-depth knowledge necessary for doing business on those markets as well. Likewise, a country the lawmakers of which have understood that law can contribute to growth and which thus is ready to learn from the experiences of others, needs similarly trained lawyers as well for the myriad legal reforms many of which are hardly one-shot-type efforts.

European, and other non-Chinese students, who are open to the challenges and benefits CESL’s multi-jurisdictional program offers could enormously profit from the year spent with Chinese peers not only by learning about formal Chinese law but more importantly about  those meta-legal factors the comprehension of which is inevitable for proper understanding the Chinese legal system and which are necessary for doing business with Chinese partners.


5. What is your fondest memory from teaching in Beijing?
From the many, and related to the teaching process and experience, my fondest memory concerns the appreciation I’ve got from a considerable number of students of all generations I taught at CESL for all what they learned from me and what me, my teaching methods as well as my approaches meant to them. This was sometimes expressed directly, orally or by way of email exchanges, or indirectly from the contents of their questions and comments to the worries for my health in May 2020, during the outbreak of the COVID19 pandemic in Europe.