Scholars Visiting Law School this Semester for Chinese Law and Society Colloquium

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Scholars Visiting Law School this Semester for Chinese Law and Society Colloquium

Media Contact:  Nancy Goldfarb, 212-854-1584  [email protected]
Public Affairs Office 212-854-2650 [email protected]
 
New York, Feb. 8, 2010 – A new interdisciplinary colloquium about Chinese law, society, and governance has been attracting standing-room only audiences at Columbia Law School. 
 
More than 35 students from the Law School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are enrolled in the course “Chinese Law and Society,” but other students and professors have also been coming to hear leading scholars discuss their China-focused research in this weekly colloquium.
 
Professor Benjamin Liebman and Columbia University East Asian Languages and Culture Professor Madeleine Zelin have invited 11 specialists in two fields–Chinese law and Chinese legal history–to discuss topics ranging from justice in 17th-century China to television as a campaign medium.
 
Liebman is director of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies, which, along with the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, is sponsoring the speaking events. Liebman’s research focuses on the role of media in the Chinese legal system, Chinese tort law, and the evolution of China’s courts and legal profession.
 
“There is a lot of exciting work being done by scholars on both contemporary law and society and on Chinese legal history,” Liebman says. “But scholars and students in law, history, and the social sciences do not talk to each other very often. This colloquium is one step toward fostering cross-disciplinary dialogue.”
 
Zelin, the Dean Lung Professor of Chinese Studies at Columbia University and director of the East Asian National Resource Center, is currently working on a project about the legal history of the Qing Dynasty.
 
This cross-disciplinary course is the first of its kind for the university and for the Center for Chinese Legal Studies. Traditionally, the Center hosts a major event and a speaker series in the spring semester.  This colloquium will be the first series law students can take for credit and for which readings are available to the public in advance of the speakers’ presentations.
 
“This is a great way of exploring Chinese law in depth,” says Paulette Roberts, Director of Asian and Comparative Law Programs.
 
The colloquium events take place Tuesdays from 4:20 – 6:10pm in Jerome Greene Hall, Room 701. The scholars’ research and more information are available on the Center for Chinese Legal Studies website.
 
(Written by Christopher Gomes)
 
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins its traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, criminal, national security, and environmental law.