Since 1981, the Wuhan University Institute of Environmental Law (hereinafter referred to as the Institute) has been adhering to an all-round and high-level international development strategy, and has carried out international exchange and cooperation in the areas of talent training, scientific research, academic platform and think-tank building, becoming one of the most well-known and influential environmental law research institutions in the Asia-Pacific region and a major force in global environmental law research.
Building a world-class faculty
The Institute has always attached great importance to the internationalization of its teaching staff. On the one hand, it actively sends teachers to study abroad for degrees or long-term training, and on the other hand, it vigorously introduces international top experts in environmental law to teach, lecture and collaborate in scientific research, so as to build a highly internationalised and high-level teaching staff.
The Institute takes the selection of young scholars to study abroad as an important way to improve their academic level and international communication skills. Up to now, all nine Chinese teachers of the Institute have degrees from foreign universities or overseas study experience.
With regard to discipline development and talent cultivation, the Institute insists on combining "inviting in" and "going out", and has systematically introduced a number of foreign experts, discipline leaders and innovative teams who are at the forefront of the international arena. In the past five years, the Institute has hired 40 short-term (3-6 months) foreign teachers, over 300 visiting foreign scholars and three long-term Fulbright scholars from the United States. The foreign faculty members insist on teaching and research and have achieved fruitful results.
Improving the international education system
The Institute has continuously improved and enriched its international talent cultivation model by conducting international joint studies, sending students to study abroad, involving students in international joint research, offering full English degree programmes, employing foreign teachers to teach, inviting foreign scholars to lecture at the university, and holding international academic conferences, and has formed a comprehensive international talent cultivation system.
In 2018, the Institute launched the Wuhan University - University of Aberdeen Dual Master's Program in Environmental Law and Energy Law, and until now three students have been awarded Master's degrees in Energy Law from the University of Aberdeen. At the same time, the Institute is discussing with several world-class universities in the field of environmental law to launch "2+2" double doctoral programmes to further enrich the level of international joint study.
Member of the Research Group on Comparative Studies of Climate Law and Energy Efficiency Legislation between China and Finland (Europe)
From 2016 to 2020, the Institute has selected more than 60 master's and doctoral students to study for master's and doctoral degrees or conduct joint training at world-renowned universities such as the University of Cambridge and the University of Göttingen. At present, 12 people have got PhDs from overseas universities and are teaching at renowned universities at home and abroad, such as the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nankai University and Wuhan University.
In 2015, the IUCN International Research Cooperation Programme on "Sustainable Development Law", undertaken by the Institute, involved a number of PhD students who, together with more than 30 scholars from various countries, conducted case studies on the topic of "Public Participation Principles and Protected Areas". " During the same year, the Institute undertook the project "Comparative Study of Sino-Finnish (European) Legislation on Climate Law and Energy Efficiency" and sent 14 postgraduates in 3 batches to attend international academic conferences.
The Institute also offers an English degree program. In 2017, the Institute launched the only full English teaching environmental law PhD program in China, taking into account the training model of environmental law PhD students in top international universities, and enrolled five foreign PhD students. Over the past four years of the program, several foreign students have published high-quality papers in SSCI journals and two have taught in foreign universities after graduation.
In addition, the Institute also continues to improve and enrich the international talent training model by employing foreign teachers, inviting foreign scholars to lecture at the university and holding international academic conferences.
Participating in international cooperation
The Institute takes full advantage of its international links and international academic capabilities to participate actively in international joint research projects. Between 1990 and 2010, the Institute participated in more than 20 international joint research projects, including the Asian Development Bank's Young Environmental Law Talent Training Program, the China-GEF Land Degradation Prevention and Control in Drylands Partnership Program, and the Australian Government's Linkage International Cooperation Program, which have won the attention and recognition of the international environmental law community.
In recent years, the number of major international research projects successfully applied by the Institute has been increasing. Among them, Prof. Qin Tianbao has successfully applied for four major international collaborative projects. In addition, Prof. Du Qun, Prof. Wang Shuyi and Assoc. Prof. Li Guangbing have also participated in relevant international collaborative projects. The relevant research has improved China's environmental and energy policies and regulations, and provided reference value for the improvement of the world's environmental and energy policies and laws.
In 2017, the Institute and the University of Aberdeen jointly established the Wuhan University-University of Aberdeen Research Centre for Environmental and Energy Law, in which both parties explored new areas of research and jointly applied for international research projects, further broadening the international joint research channels and enhancing the international competitiveness.
The opening ceremony of the Wuhan University-University of Aberdeen Research Centre for Environmental and Energy Law
Creating platform for international exchange
The Institute regularly organized high-end international training and international academic forums, co-founded English-language journals, recommended scholars to serve in international academic organizations, published monographs or papers in English in internationally renowned publishers and journals, and built a series of high-end international academic exchange platforms.
In the 1990s, the Institute and the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney, Australia, jointly organized six "Training Courses on Sustainable Development Law in China"; since 2010, the Institute and the Faculty of Law of Ghent University, Belgium, jointly organized the "China-Europe Environmental Law Forum". In 2011, the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law established the world's first advanced training base for teaching and research in environmental law at the Institute, and in November 2015, the Institute co-organized with the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law and the IUCN Environmental Law Centre the " Training Course on Protected Areas Law and Governance ", which promoted in-depth exchanges between Chinese and foreign scholars.
In 2011, the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law (AEL) established the world's first advanced training base for teaching and research in environmental law at the Institute. In collaboration with faculty members selected by the AEL, the Institute has organized several training courses and trained over 100 young scholars in environmental law from across China.
In 2017, the Institute cooperated with Brill, a leading international academic publisher, to establish the English-language journal Chinese Journal of Environmental Law (CJEL). This is the first academic journal and the first academic journal in English in the Chinese environmental law community.
The Institute actively publishes important monographs in internationally renowned publishers and important research results in internationally renowned journals, aiming to fully demonstrate the international academic level and international academic influence of the Institute. In the past five years, scholars of the Institute have published four monographs in English with well-known publishers such as Oxford University Press, and nearly 20 papers in English in SSCI journals, making it the Chinese environmental law research institute with the largest number of English papers published in SSCI journals at present.
Two Publications of the Institute
Playing the role of a high-end national think tank for political advice
For a long time, scholars of the Institute have paid close attention to the development of international environmental conventions and convention negotiations, actively provided advice to the state on the implementation of international environmental treaties, and participated in national environmental diplomacy and international negotiations for many times, giving full play to the role of an international high-end think tank to advise and advise.
Qin Tianbao invited to attend the meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP)
During the epidemic of COVID-19, scholars from the Institute took the initiative to positively publicise the significant achievements of China's fight against the epidemic and its positive contribution to the international community by actively publishing papers and clarifying misunderstandings at international conferences and other occasions, which strongly safeguarded China's reputation and good international image.
In March 2021, at an international symposium co-organized by the Global Epidemiology Network and UN-Habitat, Qin Tianbao presented China's legal response to the COVID-19 epidemic in four areas: legislation, enforcement, justice and international response, demonstrating China's efforts to fight against the epidemic by means of the rule of law and presenting China's image as an international law-abiding country.
With the joint efforts of all scholars, the Institute has achieved fruitful international exchanges and cooperation, and its internationalization indexes are among the highest of similar institutions in China. Through the implementation of a comprehensive international development strategy, the Institute has become one of the most well-known and influential environmental law research institutions in Greater China and the Asia-Pacific region, and has made an important contribution to Wuhan University's ranking of 51-100 in the QS ranking of law majors and to its selection as one of the "double first-class" disciplines in China.
Edited by Yuan Yuhang & Wu Liuqing
