National Judges College and City University of Hong Kong Successfully Held Symposium

City University of Hong Kong has collaborated with the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China and its National Judges College since 2009. Together they have organized a number of programmes for Chinese senior judges and have educated elites in the field. To celebrate 10-year cooperation between National Judges College and City University of Hong Kong (CityU), a Symposium and Case Law and Case Guidance System Forum were held on 8 December 2019 at National Judges College in Beijing. The symposium aims to summarize and review the achievements of the project since the implementation of the project for ten years, to discuss the guiding system of case with Chinese characteristics, and to further strengthen judicial exchanges and cooperation between the two places.

Representatives of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court, some local courts, the Case Law Research Society of the Chinese Law Society, the Hong Kong High Court, the Law Society of Hong Kong, experts and scholars from Peking University, the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Judges College, the City University of Hong Kong, and representatives of teachers and students of the cooperative project participated in the meeting. The officiating guests included YANG Wanming, Vice President of the Supreme People's Court, HU Yunteng. Grand Justice of the Supreme People's Court;  Justice Wally YEUNG Chun-kuen, Vice President of the Court of Appeal of the High Court; JIANG Huiling, Senior Judge and Vice President of the National Judges College; Mr. C. M. CHAN, Vice President, The Law Society of Hong Kong; Professor LI Duan, Associate Provost (Strategic Planning), CityU and Professor TAN Cheng-Han, Dean and Chair Professor of Commercial Law, School of Law, CityU. 

YANG Wanming, vice president of the Supreme People's Court delivered a speech during the meeting and mentioned that the cooperation between the National Judges College and the City University of Hong Kong and the training of mainland judges was an important part of the two countries' active development of judicial and legal exchanges and cooperation. The successful implementation of the project has trained a large number of high-quality trial personnel who are proficient in the legal rules of the two places and are good at handling inter-regional legal affairs. It has expanded the path of legal exchanges between the two places and has effectively promoted judicial exchanges and collaboration in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. The field of cooperation and exchange has enriched the practice of "one country, two systems".

YANG Wanming emphasized that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee has pointed out the direction to carry out judicial exchanges and cooperation between the Mainland and Hong Kong. He believed that it is necessary to deepen the exchanges of legal and educational resources between the two places and further strengthen the training of high-quality judicial talents; to strengthen judicial exchanges and cooperation to jointly build a business environment for the rule of law in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; and to make full use of the Internet platform to achieve the interconnection of legal resources.

Professor LI Duan, Associate Provost (Strategic Planning), CityU mentioned that The Chinese judges’ programmes have been advancing with the times, both in accordance with the needs of judicial reform in the Mainland and systematically imparting common law knowledge and different research methods in line with international standards to judges. He also emphasized that the Chinese judges' programmes implement a purpose of the CityU: the university's mission is not only to educate and train talents, but also to promote social progress and knowledge exchange. Finally, he hopes that CityU and the National Judges College will have more cooperation opportunities in the future to further strengthen the country's rule of law.

Professor TAN Cheng-Han, Dean and Chair Professor of Commercial Law, School of Law, CityU mentioned that the 10-year cooperation between National Judges College and CityU is a significant milestone and a sign of the strong relationship the School has with the National Judges College. It is also a reflection of the mutual benefit that both our institutions derive from our partnership.

He assured that the School of Law will continue to work hard to ensure that for as long as this program continues, the Judges will receive a high quality of education and it will help them to discharge their judicial functions with great distinction

The Case Law and Case System Guidance System Forum was held in the afternoon. The forum was kicked off by the welcome speech of Dr. LI Xiao-min, Vice President of the National Judges College and was moderated four senior legal scholars. Ten invited speakers made presentations during the forum. Professor LIN Feng, Associate Dean of School of Law, CityU presented on the topic, ‘Guiding analysis of guiding cases and improvement of case guiding system’; Dr. GUAN Wenwei, Associate Professor of School of Law, CityU spoke on the theme entitled, ‘Comparison of European and American application cases of the principle of fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination in standard essential patents; and Dr. ZHAO Liang, Assistant Professor of School of Law,  CityU examined another topic ,‘ China case report system’. Dr. HE Tianxiang, Assistant Professor of School of Law, CityU participated the forum.

The forum ended with the closing remarks of HU Yunteng who thanked all the speakers and moderators for their contributions. The forum was fruitful and thought provoking, and the atmosphere throughout the forum was interactive. The insightful views of all the speakers served as an important foundation for further research.