Throughout CESL’s more than three year history, the majority of teaching workloads was undertaken by professors without full-time position at CESL. Yet how can a law school survive without sufficient full-time professors? In answering this question we may shed light on how best to organise teaching positions suitable to a specific institution.

There are two two approaches to recruiting teaching staff.

The classic one, which I prefer to regard as a monopolizing approach, is to lock-in the professor and reshape his or her identity as a part of the institution. The professor grows ever more reliant on the institution as a way to define his or her status and social capital. According to Qian Zhongshu (钱钟书), this approach results in careers that resemble the lives in a “Fortress Besieged” (围城). Institutional politics dominate relations among colleagues in a closed community, whose members continuously fight for something the value of which only they themselves can appreciate.    

The second approach, which I prefer to call it an open-ended commitment, is one where the institution focuses on attracting eminent professors from other institutions. These professors become visiting professors, adjunct professors and research fellows, who unless both sides are strongly inclined, have no desire to develop an exclusive relationship.

In the last three years, with one or two exceptions, CESL professors have all been of this second kind. Aside from two full-time professors, we invited visiting professors from Renmin University, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Taiwan Zhengzhi University, City University of Hong Kong, China’s Academy of Social Sciences, Zhejiang University and Beihang University; additionally, we have recruited adjunct professors from senior lawyers, in-house counsels, and CEOs. In so doing, CESL does not intentionally distinguish itself from other law schools, but rather has no choice. This approach is employed simply to offset structural disadvantages: the project-based budget does not allow us to offer tenured positions, or more exactly, any positions with a term beyond the end of project (December 31, 2012).

How can a new institution convince a renowned professor to give up his current position or lobby an ambitious young scholar to join CESL by telling them that "Hey, CESL deserves your attendance but, no matter how important you are to CESL, you have to take the risk of losing your job in CESL three years, two years, one year or even six months later since we are not authorized to offer you a job period beyond December 31, 2012." CESL was therefore forced to strive for an alternative from the very beginning. 
 
Owing to this disadvantage, CESL must position itself wisely.

Soon or later, CESL will be converted into one of those 'besieged fortresses' and professors who helped CESL so much in its first three years will be sidelined. Therefore, I feel obliged to express my sincerest gratitude to CESL 'external' professors telling them that I as well as CESL students will cherish our memory of their fundamental contribution to CESL during CESL's starting period which is full of hardship but successfully won the engagement of dedicated colleagues. Thank you.

CESL held a meeting on January 19, 2012, about the first term of the 2011-12 academic year. Zhang Baosheng, CUPL vice president and chair of the CESL Academic and Degrees Committee, Fang Liufang, CESL co-dean, Li Shuguang, director of the CUPL Graduate School and professors Zheng Yongliu, Cao Pei, Zhu Weiyi, Hao Qian, Zhang Shoudong, Wang Jun and Qi Hong attended. The meeting was chaired by Co-dean Fang.

Co-dean Fang thanked everyone for their contributions to CESL. He told participants that in 2011, applications from Chinese students were up 300% and from international students 400%. Due to the organisation of the programme the majority of professors are part time. This is both a problem and an advantage in that recruitment is based on teaching requirements. CESL will further improve teaching management with the aim of becoming an institution professors feel it is worth sharing their time and wisdom with.

Li Shuguang, who taught bankruptcy law, talked about his experiences as a teacher at CESL. CESL students are hardworking and have a broad range of knowledge. Before starting classes CESL gives teachers clear requirements and holds evaluations for teachers and students. This safeguards the quality of classes and could be used as an example by the CUPL Graduate School. As regards CESL’s development, Li made two suggestions: Set up a stable faculty with CUPL’s support; Start a magazine for students as a place to publish their work.

Zhu Weiyi, who taught Chinese Law and Society for CLTE students, talked about his experience teaching international students and his thoughts on teaching methods and outside practice. Hao Qian, who taught Labour Law for CLTE students, stated that students were very enthusiastic, however, that she hoped CESL would provide more guidance on basic writing and research.

Zheng Yongliu asked, “What is a good teacher?” Is it asking questions or being asked questions? Co-dean Fang added that the mechanism for evaluating teachers required further thought and research.

Zhang Shoudong presented his findings from a research project on citations of Chinese law sources in English. This project is supported by a CESL research grant and the aim is to create a standardised format for citing Chinese law in English and as a way to stop plagiarism.

Closing remarks were made by Vice President Zhang Baosheng. He underlined CESL’s achievements over the last four years, hoping that they would continue, and that CESL would act as a bridge between China and the West. He also stated his wish that the results of Zhang Shoudong’s research would become a model for student dissertations.

Vice President Zhang and Co-dean Fang closed the meeting by wishing participants a merry Chinese New Year.

CESL will hold the second Chinese law taught in English Programme for international students in the autumn of 2012. Courses will be open to both visiting students at CESL for only one semester and students reading the University of Hamburg's Master of European and International Law in Beijing. Visiting students have the option to transfer to CESL's Master of Chinese Law and all their CLTE credits will be recognised for that purpose.

In addition to courses on Contemporary Chinese Law, Chinese Law and Society, Chinese Legal History, Chinese Labour Law, Chinese Business Law, Chinese Criminal Justice, new courses on Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and Intellectual Property Law have been added for 2012.

As part of the first CLTE course students visited a law firm, a prison, attended both a civil and a criminal trial,  and Baidu.

Scholarships are available and admission to CESL is never based on an applicant's ability to pay tuition fees. All students from CESL partner universities, and the majority of students from other universities, will receive a scholarship covering tuition fees.

Although CLTE is not a degree program, credits from CLTE courses can be used towards completion of an LLM of Chinese Law from CESL. A certificate as well as a transcript will be awarded at the end of the programme.
More information is available on the CLTE page.

CESL’s first intake of CLTE students took part in a graduation forum on January 16, 2012. Opening speeches were given by Co-dean Fang Liufang and Professor Hao Qian.

Co-dean Fang thanked teachers and students for their dedication saying, “Four months ago, you came to China driven by a strong sense of curiosity. Instead of coming with a pragmatic agenda, you came here simply because of your intellectual curiosity. You are here neither to become a Chinese Lawyer nor to obtain a diploma in Chinese Law. You are here just for the experience of studying Chinese Law in China. This is a unique choice. Great thinkers in every industry are shaped by their curiosity, critical thinking and open-mindedness. This sort of thinking leads to high level positions. I hope your curiosity will continue to accompany you throughout your life long journey to uncover the truth.”

CLTE students, Yolanda Lopez and Sören-Kristian Springborn represented students and thanked their professors at CESL. “To teach 23 students,” they said, “of different ages and with different legal backgrounds Chinese Law and to do this in English is anything but easy. We feel great respect for that. Besides, you were open to any questions, you always tried to improve your teaching and not least you were all one of the kindest professors we ever had”.

They also thanked Ma Anna and Chen Yingfang, who had helped them throughout the term, and also the student “angels” who “since we set our first foot in Changping have in an altruistic way helped us in everything in their power. We have several times commented between us that we hardly believed this would happen in the opposite way, when a Chinese student goes to study in Europe. So, again thank you very much for that generous attitude without which things here would have been much more difficult for us.”

First class scholarships were awarded to Paola Pasquali and Manuel Veiga Aldemira who came top of the class, before the ceremony was brought to a close by Co-dean Thomas Bruha. Bruha said, “In the name of all my colleagues I wish you, the graduates of CLTE much success in your future professional careers. May you have enriched your knowledge about the laws and the culture of China in a way that will enable you to become ambassadors of global legal thinking, experts who understand both the varieties and the interchange of national laws in an increasingly globalised world”.

CESL offered six courses on Chinese Law Taught in English during the first term of the 2011-12 academic year: Chinese Business Law, Chinese Criminal Justice, Chinese Law and Society, Chinese Legal History, Chinese Labour Law, and Contemporary Chinese Law.

In accordance with CESL practice, the following procedures were used to evaluate professors who taught Chinese Law:

The above procedures minimise the effect of evaluations on teachers’ assessment of students and vice versa.

Six teachers participated in the evaluation. Results showed that Yue Liling, who was specially invited to teach Chinese Criminal Justice, came top with 4.61 out of a maximum of 5. Second was Professor Hao Qian, who taught Chinese Labour Law with 4.56, and third was Meng Chuncai, who taught Chinese Business Law with 4.49.

CESL students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and educational systems. Extra comments were thus diverse. The same course could be described by one student as well structured and another as needing more structure. Students also made requests to have handouts earlier and more suggested readings.

Comments were, however, overwhelmingly positive with top teacher Yue Liling described as “The most hospitable professor I’ve ever met. Great knowledge of her subject. Interesting to listen to her practical experiences as a young lawyer.” On Professor Hao Qian and her course on Labour Law, “Best course at CESL. Professor covered a diverse amount of information. Presentations were effective and interesting. Professor was receptive of questions and encouraged thought provoking discussion. Professor was always well prepared for class. I enjoyed Labor Law thoroughly.” Professor Meng Chuncai also received “By far the best course in the programme” and “Business Law taught by Prof. Meng Chuncai was my favourite class”.

Student evaluations are of course far from sufficient in assessing professors' overall performance. CESL also uses the evaluations as a means to encourage student participation and provide feedback as a reference for future courses.

Any comments on the evaluations can be sent to: info_cesl@cupl.edu.cn.

Office for Teaching Affairs