On May 15, the first lecture of the "Luo Jia Legal Practice Lecture" was held at Wuhan University Law School. Hu Yunteng, former member of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People's Court and President of the Case Law Research Society of the Chinese Law Society, was invited to give a lecture on the "Practical Development of Judicial Authority". Prof. Feng Guo, Dean of Wuhan University Law School, presided over the lecture, Li Qunxing, member of the party group and Vice President of Hubei Provincial Higher People's Court, Prof. Qin Qianhong, Prof. Hong Hao, Prof. He Rongkong and Prof. Luo Kun of Wuhan University Law School, and many other teachers and students attended the lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Dean Feng briefly introduced the original purpose and significance of the Lecture, expressed a warm welcome to President Hu, and gave a detailed introduction to his rich experience in theoretical research, judicial interpretation drafting and judicial trial work.

With the theme of "Practical Development of Judicial Authority", President Hu shared his more than 20 years of experience in judicial practice with students and teachers, focusing on the "Chinese characteristics of judicial power" and "the capacity of judicial power". Firstly, President Hu analysed the institutional advantages and effectiveness of justice under Chinese characteristics from ten aspects: the people's nature of judicial authority, the derivative nature of judicial authority, the political nature of judicial authority, the decentralised nature of judicial authority, the collective nature of judicial decision-making, the complexity of the judicial operation process, the service nature of judicial authority, the plurality of evaluation criteria, the performance-based nature of judicial assessment and the lifelong nature of judicial accountability. President Hu particularly emphasised the political nature of the people's courts, arguing that the political and legal organs, including the people's courts, must function on the basis of adhering to the Party's leadership and consolidating the Party's ruling position, which is the most important feature that distinguishes them from judicial organs in Western countries. In addition, President Hu also emphasised that the complexity of the judicial process is an integral part of the operation of justice in reality, and that the handling of complex cases requires the constraints and guidance of different procedures, while pointing out that natural justice, national law and human feelings are important expressions of the plurality of evaluation criteria. Secondly, President Hu discussed in detail the specific powers of judicial competence, such as the power of interpretation, judgment, decision and reasoning in adjudication.

In the talkback session, Vice-President Li, Prof. Hong and Prof. Qin talked about their own views on the above speeches. Vice-President Li summarized the core of the lecture with four key words: justice, competence, configuration and optimization. Prof. Hong shared his understanding from three angles: the understanding of judicial authority and judicial power, the characteristics of judicial authority with Chinese characteristics, and the practicality of judicial authority with Chinese characteristics. Prof. Qin believed that the justice presented to us by President Hu is vivid and vibrant justice in practice, and offerd his views on President Hu's emphasis on the political nature of the people's courts and the discourse on the natural justice, national law and human feelings.

Afterwards, President Hu interacted with the students and teachers present and gave patient and detailed answers to their concerns. At the end of the lecture, President Feng expressed his gratitude to President Hu and the speakers, Vice President Li, Prof. Qin and Prof. Hong, as well as to the students and teachers. The first lecture of the "LuoJia Law Practice Lecture" came to a successful conclusion.

Edited by Yuan Yuhang & Wu Liuqing