The Seminar on the Training of Legal Professionals for Foreign-Related Affairs & Inauguration Ceremony of the School of Comparative Law was held by the College on Haidian Campus on the morning of 16 May, 2025.
Chair of the University Council Jiang Zeting, President of the University Ma Huaide, Vice Chair of the University Council Huang Ruiyu and Vice President of the Beijing University of International Business and Economics Mei Xiaying attended the event and presented opening remarks. Deans of law schools at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Central University of Finance and Economics, heads of relevant departments of the University, the faculty of the College and the student representatives attended the meeting.
Jiang Zeting pointed out that the official opening of the School of Comparative Law is an important measure in the transformation and upgrading of the University to meet the strategic needs of the country and a milestone in the development of the University in promoting the country’s education for foreign-related affairs. According to Jiang, the University builds a ‘one center & multi-base’ integrated development layout to carry out practice-oriented professionals training. He emphasised, the comprehensive and deepening reform inside the University should be integrated with the development framework and space outside the University, and should be deeply integrated with the national strategy, understood and promoted as a whole. He said, the School of Comparative Law should anchor the goal of comprehensive empowerment of legal discipline research and the transformation and upgrading of the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs, build a comparative law discipline system with Chinese characteristics, international vision and the spirit of the times, enhance the pertinence, adaptability and effectiveness of professionals training, and push the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs to a new level. Jiang expressed that the University will work towards the same goal with all other partner universities and law schools make greater contributions to build China under the rule of law.
Ma Huaide traced the development of the College of Comparative Law, from a research institute to a college and then to a multi-functional school, pointing out that it is the epitome of the development of the University. He believed that the College should deepen its understanding and strive for excellence in three aspects, including a clear self-positioning, attention to the combination of theory and practice and a new breakthrough in the evaluation standard of professionals training quality. According to him, the College should especially undertake the important task of studying regional and national law, focus on the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs as its main responsibility and business, cultivating high-quality legal talents with cross-cultural communication ability. The College should make continuous efforts in professionals training mode, curriculum design and training methods, and achieve new results in breaking down the institutional barriers between universities and the society. The College should carry out the whole process monitoring and long-term attention to students from school to society, promote the continuous optimisation of the mode, scheme and curriculum system of University's professionals training, and form a scale effect.
Mei Xiaying spoke highly of the work of the College in his speech, saying that the College has provided other law schools and universities in the country with a model for the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs. He expected the College to find the right starting point and actively undertake the important mission of serving the national strategy.
Dean of the Peking University Law School Guo Li believed that it is of great significance to the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs and the exploration of the path of socialist rule of law with Chinese features that the College extended the scope of discipline construction and professionals training to the undergraduate stage. He said the two sides would continue to work side by side on the road of training high-quality legal professionals.
At the meeting, Huang Ruiyu and Mei Xiaying jointly inaugurated the School of Comparative Law (College of Comparative Law).
At the following seminar, the participating experts and scholars conducted in-depth exchanges on such topics as “the quality and evaluation criteria for training legal professionals for foreign-related affairs” and “the curriculum system and employment direction for training legal professionals for foreign-related affairs”, learnt from each other in the future work ideas and key points, and worked together for the training of legal professionals for foreign-related affairs in the country.
The College of Comparative Law (also functioning as the School of Comparative Law) will leverage regional and national legal studies as a driving force to break through traditional disciplinary boundaries, integrate high-quality resources across the university, and actively explore interdisciplinary development in regional and national legal studies. The college aims to become a world-class hub for training talents, conducting scientific research, and promoting international legal and cultural exchange in the fields of comparative law and regional legal studies.
This initiative is designed to support CUPL’s broader vision of building an open, international, multidisciplinary, and innovative world-class university. The College of Comparative Law will serve as both a ‘gateway to the world’ and a ‘port of entry’ for global academic exchange.
Starting in 2025, in addition to its existing graduate programs, the college will begin enrolling undergraduate students majoring in regional and national legal studies.
