Seminar: Law, Justice and Human Rights in China

Presented by the New University in Exile Consortium at The New School for Social Research

Starting on September 16, 2020, I began teaching a 10-week New School-sponsored seminar “Law, Justice, and Human Rights in China,” co-taught with Teng Biao, a famous but exiled Chinese law professor, lawyer, law reformer and human rights activist, and moderated by Katherine Wilhelm, executive director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at NYU Law School. This page will feature recordings of the sessions; however, please register on the New School website (link here) to access them.

Link to all of the recordings here.

Week 1: Pre-Communist History

What Kinds of Legal Systems Did China Have Prior to 1949? Which are most significant - Confucianism, Legalism, Daoism, Buddhism? Overview of millennial imperial law and practice.

Week 2: Establishing a Chinese Communist State

Does the PRC Need a Constitution? If so, what kind? What is Governmental Legitimacy?

Week 3: The Party-State

How is China actually governed and what has law got to do with it?

Week 4: The Range of Police-Imposed Punishments 

From the Lawless to the Formal.

Week 5: Torture, Evidence, and the Death Penalty

Is torture banned in China’s legal system? Has China honored its commitments under the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)? Why is police torture pervasive?

Week 6: Lawyers and the Rights Defense Movement

Detailed look at defense lawyers and human rights lawyers and the restrictions and sanctions imposed upon them including the 709 crackdown, the role of disbarred lawyers who are not in prison, and functional substitutes for lawyers.

Week 7: What is a Chinese “Court”?

What is a Chinese “judge”? Are these the right English translations? How are judicial decisions made? What is the role of the Supreme People’s Court and its relation to lower courts.

Week 8: Legal Education, Training, Research and Publication

What is taught and how regarding law, criminal punishments, and rule of law and academic freedom?

Week 9: Taiwan’s Criminal Justice and Democratization

What can China learn from Taiwan’s democratization and rule of law?

Week 10: The Future

What does “one country, two systems” mean to Hong Kong and the Communist Party of China? Will rule of law in Hong Kong soon disappear? When and how can China achieve rule of law for the entire country?