On October 22, 2021, lecture 31 of Weber Law Lecture Hall was successfully held in 120 Academic Lecture Hall of the Law School. The lecture was given by Prof. Che Hao, the vice dean of Peking University School of Law. The topic of the lecture was "Legal Doctrine and Social Science". The lecture was hosted by Prof. Qin Qianhong from Wuhan University Law School, and Prof. He Ronggong, Associate Prof. Chen Jinlin and Cai Ying from Wuhan University Law School were the panelists. Many scholars and students attended this lecture.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Qin Qianhong introduced Prof. Che Hao's main research fields and important academic achievements, and expressed his warm welcome and sincere thanks to Prof. Che Hao.

Prof. Che Hao firstly discussed the specific meaning of legal doctrine and social science jurisprudence in terms of research methods, research objects, research goals, disciplinary essence, and knowledge forms. After that, he discussed the differences between legal doctrine and social science jurisprudence in various perspectives, such as academic function, primary value, nature of facts, status of law, and specific examples.

Next, Prof. Che Hao introduced the main part of this lecture, which is to explore the relationship between legal dogmatics and social sciences. According to him, legal doctrine and social science are cooperative, which can be reflected as internal cooperation and external cooperation.

Prof. Che Hao pointed out that the internal cooperation is to introduce the methods and theories of social sciences into the interior of the legal doctrine system.  The methods and theories of social sciences provide the support of basic rationale for the creation of legal concepts and rules. Then, Prof. Che Hao demonstrated the possibilities and effects of internal cooperation from both economic analysis and sociological examination. The introduction of economic analysis in criminal law doctrine allows for a more accurate understanding and analysis of the rules of establishment and attribution of possession, the theory of defective consent of the victim, and the mechanism of self-action for defamation. The introduction of sociological examination into criminal law doctrine will allow for a more rational explanation of the source and basis of guarantor status, the basis for elevated punishability of pickpocketing, and other issues. Prof. Che Hao pointed out that internal cooperation between legal doctrine and social sciences is not only possible, but also very beneficial.

According to Prof. Che Hao, the external cooperation refers to the fact that social sciences do not enter the interior of legal doctrine, but are outside the system of legal doctrine, but there is not a loose parallel relationship between the two, but a close functional connection and collaboration. Prof. Che Hao took the relationship between criminology, criminal policy and criminal law as an example. He pointed out that the focus of criminology is to discover the "causes" of crime, the criminal policy is to "prescribe the medicine", and the role of criminal law is to "technically deal with the medicine ". Criminology should be used as the basis for criminal policy research on the distribution of leniency and severity, and then criminal policy should be used as a guide for legal doctrine research. Next, Prof. Che Hao took the criminal law application of crimes during the epidemic control as an example to show the external cooperation of criminology, criminal policy and criminal law.

Based on this, Prof. Che Hao concluded that both legal doctrine and social science are a form of knowledge of learning, and both should work together to promote the development of jurisprudence.

Later were the discussion stage, in which Cai Ying, Associate Prof. Chen Jinlin and Prof. He Ronggong shared their views around this lecture.

Cai Ying argued that legal doctrine has been more misunderstood, but in fact legal doctrine can be open and flexible. He further explained the meaning of jurisprudence, the crime of intentional destruction of property and the crime of extortion as examples.

Associate Prof. Chen Jinlin pointed out that social science jurisprudence give importance to case analysis but not to the distillation of general rules; legal doctrine is premised on the maintenance of general rules, but there is a risk of solidification of thinking and detachment from social reality. Based on this, Chen Jinlin pointed out that social science jurisprudence can be used to explore social facts that are difficult to find in legal doctrine and update the general rules of doctrine.

Prof. He Ronggong firstly expressed his gratitude to Prof. Che Hao for his arrival and wonderful lecture. After that, he shared his academic growth experience and insight with the lecture content. He pointed out that in the study of criminal law, the interpretation of criminal law provisions is of great significance, and at the same time, the question of the justification of the coercive power of the state to impose punishment on citizens is also extremely important. Therefore, legal doctrine has its important value. Legal hermeneutics, legal doctrine and social science jurisprudence are all important methods of legal research, and the three should cooperate with each other to promote the development of legal research.

In the interactive session, teachers and students asked Prof. Che Hao questions about the relationship between criminal law and corporate compliance, the different attitudes of different legal departments towards social science, and the construction of a victimology system. Prof. Che Hao gave detailed and in-depth answers in combination with the lecture.

Prof. Qin Qianhong summarized the lecture and expressed his gratitude to Prof. Che Hao once again. Prof. Qin Qianhong pointed out that this lecture was one of the most popular lectures in the series of activities of " Weber Law Lecture Hall ", which deeply showed the style and influence of Prof. Che Hao. At the end, all the participants stood up to express their gratitude and the lecture ended successfully.

Edited by Wang Yuting & Wu Liuqing