On the morning of July 2nd, the opening ceremony of the "2021 International Legal Talent Summer Camp" at the China-EU School of Law (CESL) of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) was held online. 114 students from all over the country participated in the summer camp. Professor Liu Fei, Co-Dean of CESL, Monty Silley, Executive Co-Dean of CESL, Ms. Yin Xiaohua, the Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Prof. Zheng Yongliu and Prof. Qi Hong, the faculty representatives, and all the administrative staff of the School were also in attendance. The ceremony was hosted by Dr. Zhao Tianshu, a professor at CESL.
At the opening ceremony, the campers first watched a promotional video from CUPL to learn about the history and operation of the university. Then, Dean Liu Fei, the Chinese Co-Dean, delivered a speech. He firstly welcomed the students from all over China and gave them a brief introduction of CESL from the following four aspects.
As for the orientation of the school, CESL is rooted in the special field of rule of law education and is dedicated to the cultivation of foreign-related rule of law talents. Relying on the deep legal background of CUPL, the European partner institutions, and the great concern of both Chinese and EU governments, CESL is growing into a veritable "reservoir of foreign-related rule of law talents".
As for the purpose of education, with the increasing scale and quality of China-EU trade and economic exchanges, the international trade and economic market has created an urgent demand for foreign-related rule of law talents. Whether it is to fill the gap in the national foreign law talent pool or for personal development, a career in foreign law is a responsible, far-sighted and courageous choice. Choosing CESL will be the most important first step for all students to start their legal career.
Dean Liu summarized the academic system as "three campuses, two degrees". In the first year, CESL students will take Chinese law courses in English and Chinese at the Changping campus of Beijing; in the second year, they will take the European and International Law courses in English at the University of Hamburg in Germany (and, some may have the opportunity to study at other European partner institutions) and receive the Master of European and International Law degree from the University of Hamburg in Germany; In the third year, students will return to the College Road campus of CUPL to write their thesis on Chinese law, participate in internships, seek employment, and eventually receive their LLM degree from CUPL.
In more than 10 years, more than 700 students have been instructed in CESL’s classrooms. Now, CESL continues to further optimize the training programme, and the English courses of the first year will be increased to one-third of the total curriculum, so that students from more than ten different countries and different legal backgrounds will meet in the classrooms of CESL and realize the collision and intermingling of ideas. Based on the requirement for students to "read a thousand books and travel a thousand miles", CESL will strive to create a unique teaching system that brings together the best of Chinese and European legal education.
In terms of academic prospects, CESL expects their students to work hard in their major and obtain two degrees with excellent performance, and to make a qualitative leap in legal English to become the legal talents needed by the country.
The students then watched a promotional video of the University of Hamburg, Germany, followed by a speech by Dean Monty Silley, who described CESL as a perfect combination of top-notch faculty and elite students from the top law schools in China and Europe. Some students may be intimidated by the all-English format of the programme, and may be hesitant to live abroad. Some students may have concerns about their year in Europe. In response, Dean Monty Silley said that the CESL will coordinate with partner institutions to help students. Moreover, the students will not study abroad alone, but together with 100 other students in the same class, and with their friends who have been studying and living together from the first year. The cross-border study will broaden the students' international perspective.
In addition, he considered that the training programme of CESL will give students a huge employment advantage. Foreign-related legal talents can be found everywhere in the positions of leading law firms, multinational companies and government. As travel and trade between China and Europe expands, there is a huge demand for professional talents who are familiar with the legal systems of both China and Europe. Finally, Dean Silley told the audience that life at CESL should be enjoyable while carrying academic demands, because CESL is an enriching and supportive environment to learn and develop. He encouraged the students to use this weekend to get a good understanding of what makes CESL such a special place.
Next, two representatives of the campers' themselves spoke separately.
The first one was Dong Yueqiu from the Experimental Excellence Class of Beijing Normal University. Dong mentioned the demand and expectation of the country for elites in foreign-related rule of law. At the same time, Dong believed that CESL has made perfect preparation for the cultivation of students' international vision, foreign language ability and practical frontier. Therefore, Dong looks forward to pursuing a master's degree in such a school with a strong academic atmosphere, and finding her niche and discovering her personal value on the way of pursuing her dream as a young person and on the way of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Like Dong, Wang Huiqiao from the School of Criminal Justice of CUPL expressed her trust in and longing for becoming a CESL student. During the past three years of study, she has experienced the profound legal heritage and the rigorous academic atmosphere of the university. During the study sessions in the Mingfa building, Wang often stopped by the English lectures at CESL, and although she could not fully understand them at first, she felt a strong desire to learn for them. CESL attaches importance to academic research and foreign exchange, and pays attention to the international cutting-edge academic development to take care of the local legal research. In the end, Wang also said that although the epidemic separated us from each other on both sides of the screen, the distance will not separate us from the enthusiasm and cherishing of learning, and the knowledge will cross the mountains and the sea, nourishing us to grow and progress more vigorously and actively.
Finally, Prof. Zhao Tianshu expressed his gratitude to all the students who chose CESL and wished all the campers to make progress and achieve their goals in this summer camp. At this point, the opening ceremony of the 2021 CESL Summer Camp for International Legal Talents came to a successful end.
During the three-day online summer camp, CESL arranged five group activities for the students with a variety of characteristics. Students attended the "Master Salon" of Prof. Zheng Yongliu, experienced the mooting classes of CESL, attended the lectures on the frontiers of international law at the Beijing office of foreign law firms, learned about the legal career development of CESL alumni, and participated in the exchange meeting between students and professors of the double masters. We look forward to seeing the campers again as students!
Written by: Weng Yan,2020 CESL double master
Photo by: Weng Yan, 2020 CESL double master
