Wuhan University legal science has a long history which can be traced back to Hubei Legal School established in 1908. After the Revolution of 1911, the School renamed to Hubei Public Law School. In 1926, Wuchang Sun Yat-Sen University was founded and finally it was reorganized to Wuhan National University in 1928, and the Law School is always one of the important departments. At that time, a large number of famous jurists such as Yan Shutang, Wang Shijie, Pi Zongshi, Zhou Gengsheng, Mei Ru’ao successively worked here, the Law School enjoyed its reputation at home and abroad. After the recovery of Law Faculty in 1979 and the establishment of Law School in 1986, several famous jurists successively served as the dean of Law Faculty and Law School, such as the famous jurist Professor Han Depei, the famous penologist Professor Ma Kechang, the well-known civil and commercial law expert Professor Ma Junju, the well-known international law expert Professor Yu Jinsong and Professor Zeng Lingliang, and the current dean is the well-known international law expert Professor Xiao Yongping. After 30 years reconversion and development, the Law School has become a national center of legal education and research in China.
Complete disciplines and institutions, distinctive characteristics
In 2003, the Law School was approved to be the initial first level law discipline doctorate conferrable spot. The Law School boasts two nationally key disciplines (international law and environmental law), one national key (foster) discipline (constitutional law and administrative law) and one mobile postdoctoral research station. Some disciplines were approved to be provincial key first level disciplines in 2008, including international law as the provincial preponderant discipline, environment and resources protection law and constitutional law and administrative law as the provincial characteristics disciplines. The Law School has two key research sites of humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education: the Institute of International Law and the Institute of Environmental Law. It also participated in the national “211 Project” 1-3 period construction. The Institute of International Law, as the leading unit, was authorized as Philosophy and Social Science Innovation Base Project of “985 Project” and the constructing project of national “985 Project third period” that the Law School obtained. The only Sports Law doctor station in China was established and began to enroll students in 2009. At the end of 2011, doctor station of Intellectual Property Law was successfully approved.
The characteristics and academic style of International Law initially formed the “LuoJia Law School”. It not only overall enjoys obvious advantages nationwide, but also has an important influence worldwide. Environmental and resources protection law and constitutional law and administrative law take the leading position in China. And all the second level disciplines and research directions have their own stable and reasonable academic echelon.
Besides, the Law School has some other scientific research institutions, such as the Comparative Constitutional Law Research Center, the Criminal Law Comparative Research Center, the Institute of National Security, the Institute of Economic Law, the Institute of Tax Law, the Network Economy and Legal Research Center, the Sports Law Research Center, the Human Rights and Development Research Center, etc. It additionally has the Practical Training Center of Law, Law Library (including the United Nations Documentation Center), Law Review magazine office and Chinese Yearbook of Private International Law and Comparative Law editorial department, etc.
Strong academic team, obvious talent advantage
Of the 100 full time faculty members 55 are professors, 32 are associate professors. The Law School has 1 Senior Professor, 3 Chang Jiang Scholars, 3 chief experts of the “Youth Marxist Training Project”, 4 members who got “The National Top Ten Outstanding Young Jurists”, 1 national famous teacher, 13 new century excellent talents of the Ministry of Education, 7 members who hold a PhD from overseas famous universities, and over 80% young and mid-aged teachers have the study abroad experience. Formed a first level discipline team headed by Professor Li Long, Professor Zeng Lingliang and Professor Xiao Yongping, etc. As the young academic backbone, the team of post-70s generation shows up a vibrant potential advantage.
Significant research projects, outstanding research funds and remarkable achievements
In recent five years (2008-2012), Professor Zeng Lingliang, Professor Huang Jin, Professor Xiao Yongping, Professor Zhang Xianglan and Professor Zhou Yezhong have successively obtained significant research projects of the Ministry of Education, Professor Yi Xianhe, Professor Yang Zewei and Professor Jiang Guohua have successively gained major bidding projects from the National Social Science Fund. In 2009, the Law School research funds exceeded 10 million Yuan for the first time, and reached to 15 million Yuan in 2012. In the first identification list of the “Higher Education School Innovation Ability Promoting Project” (“2011 Project”), taking the Institute of Environmental Law as the participant body, Wuhan University was selected to be the Cooperative Innovation Unit of the Center of Cooperative Innovation for Judicial Civilization, and it is also the only university in Hubei Province that be selected into the first identification list of “2011 Project”.
Talent training quality steadily improved, internationalization trend speed up
The Law School currently has more than 2,000 master students and 1,000 undergraduates. Each year around 200 undergraduates, 500 master students and 100 PhD students are registered to study at the Law School. Newly setting up Police Officers Double Bachelor Degree, Juris Master (Law), Juris Master (Police Officers) and Master of International Law and Chinese Law to recruit students. In recent two years, the Law School has been authorized 2 national demonstration bilingual courses, professional degree education comprehensive reform pilot unit, Outside School Law Practicing and Teaching Base of the Ministry of Education, National Excellent Legal Talents Training Base, 1 national excellent video open class (the first batch). 8 papers won the Hubei Province Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award and 1 paper won the National Hundred Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Award. Annually, the Law School at least has 1-2 foreign professors teach for a long time on average, and receive nearly 40 experts and scholars from all over the world to give lectures in short time; sending more than 30 teachers to go abroad to study, give lectures, research, access or investigate. Lasting exchange and cooperation relationship have been established between the Law School and some prestigious law schools in the US, Japan, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Most of the undergraduate students in French teaching law class and German teaching law class can study abroad, and taking in account the number of the students in other general classes that apply to go abroad, nearly 1/3 of undergraduate students will study abroad, the Law School education internationalization is very obvious.
Domestic first-class foundation conditions of law teaching and research
The Law School building usable area spans over 25,000 m2, and has a law library which spans over 3,000 m2, a moot court and moot arbitral court which spans over 500 m2, a criminal investigation laboratory which spans over 200 m2, 9 multimedia classrooms that can accommodate 130-160 people, 9 research laboratories which spans 60-90 m2, and an electronic reading room that can accommodate 150 people at a time, and more than 100 teacher’s work rooms.
The Law School library currently has a collection of more than 180,000 Chinese and foreign legal science professional books, 600 Chinese and foreign journals, 2,000 reference books, 9,000 doctoral dissertations and master thesis that written by the graduates, 11 large Chinese and international legal online databases, several legal subject discs and 130 computers. The library has initially constructed a high quality legal document resources guarantee service system which is professional, refined, profound, strong academic and complementary by paper documents and electric documents. And the library has realized automated management; it provides a strong literature resources guarantee for the teaching, scientific research and discipline construction of the Law School. Besides, the Law School library has been designated by the UN as a depositary library since Dec. 1999.
The first batch of Outside School Law Practicing and Teaching Base of the Ministry of Education, the “Excellent Legal Talents” Training Base of the Ministry of Education together with several legal practice places, rich information resources and multi-function research building provide good foundation conditions for the development of the law science.
