On the afternoon of August 28, 2023, the Seminar on Digital Law Construction in the Context of New Liberal Arts Construction was held in Jiulong Lake Hotel of Southeast University, which was organized by the Law School of Southeast University and the Judicial Big Data Base of People's Court. Gao Shaolin, former Chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the Tianjin Municipal People's Congress, Prof. Guo Zongming, Director of the Wang Xuan Computer Research Institute of Peking University, Prof. Zhou Shugeng of the School of Computer Science and Technology of Fudan University, Prof. Wang Kingland of the School of Law of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Cao Qin, Director of the Legislative Operations of Peking University Faber, and Ruan Chenxin, editor of the Editorial Department of the Forum of Political Science and Law, came to this meeting. Prof. Ouyang Benqi, Dean of Law School of Southeast University, Prof. Wang Lusheng, Director of Social Science Department, Associate Prof. Yang Jie, Associate Researcher Xu Minchuan, Associate Researcher Miao Ze, Mr. Xing Chenxi, Mr. Liu Yifan, Mr. Wang Yuan, Mr. Bi Wenxuan, and Mr. Bi Sheng of the Digital Law Team attended the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Associate Researcher Xu Minchuan of Law School of Southeast University.
At the beginning of the meeting, Prof. Wang Lusheng, Director of the Social Science Division of Southeast University and Executive Director of the People's Court Judicial Big Data Research Base of Southeast University, introduced the construction of the discipline of digital jurisprudence of Southeast University to the guests. Prof. Wang Lusheng said that the construction of digital jurisprudence at Southeast University began in 2014, and it is one of the earliest institutions in China to carry out cross-disciplinary research on digital jurisprudence. Since then, the college has always taken the responsibility of serving the construction of intelligent rule of law, relying on the first Judicial Big Data Research Base of People's Courts in China, and adopting the general idea of integrated planning, cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary research, and comprehensive measures to steadily promote the construction of digital jurisprudence in the fields of legal big data and artificial intelligence, theoretical research, intelligent application research and development. It has made good achievements in legal big data and artificial intelligence theoretical research, intelligent application research and development, as well as the cultivation of composite innovative talents. Looking to the future, Southeast University Digital Law aims to build a domestic digital law research highland integrating theoretical research, decision-making consulting, technological innovation, and talent cultivation, and invites experts to take a look at the pulse and diagnosis.
Gao Shaolin, former chairman of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the Tianjin Municipal People's Congress, believes that the essence of digital jurisprudence is to study how future jurisprudence can adapt to the development of artificial intelligence. Networks, data, algorithms, arithmetic and applications are the five basic areas of artificial intelligence, and legal theory and legislative tools should be used to respond to emerging issues. Digital legislation, should encourage innovation, promote development, guarantee security, safeguard social public interests, and pay attention to personal information protection. The future development of digital jurisprudence, in turn, must be combined with digital technology to realize the regularization of legal principles, the standardization of legal rules, the standardization of legal norms, the codification of normative standards, and the intelligence of legal activities.
Cao Qin, director of legislative operation of Beida Law Bao, pointed out that the extended development of digital jurisprudence in the industry is called legal technology. Overall, informatization and intelligence are two different orientations of legal technology, while functional modules such as drafting assistance and review assistance belong to typical intelligent technology. The industrialization of digital jurisprudence requires a large number of excellent talents with cross backgrounds of both legal professional knowledge and computer professional knowledge, which relies on digital jurisprudence talent training institutions such as Southeast University to further open up disciplinary barriers and promote collaborative education.
Prof. Guo Zongming, director of Wang Xuan Computer Research Institute of Peking University, pointed out that the inertia of science thinking will affect the construction of new engineering disciplines, while the inertia of engineering thinking will also affect the construction of new liberal arts. The construction of new liberal arts, such as digital law, cannot be oriented purely by interest exploration. The School of Law of Southeast University can further carry out organized scientific research in a systematic and institutionalized mode, and make efforts in clarifying its own disciplinary positioning, identifying the combination point of arts and sciences intersection, and promoting the growth and innovation of disciplinary knowledge.
Professor Zhou ShuiGeng from School of Computer Science and Technology of Fudan University pointed out that the discipline attribute of digital jurisprudence has not yet been completely clarified, and the exchanges between jurisprudence and computer specialties are still relatively few. There are still some outstanding problems in the construction of faculty, training of young talents, matching of employment demand and other major issues in digital law. In the future, Southeast University School of Law should pay more attention to the major needs of national strategy and the frontier direction of scientific and technological development, and further cultivate the growth point of emerging interdisciplinary disciplines under the premise of solid disciplinary foundation and good research.
Prof. Wang Kingland of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Law School pointed out that Southeast University School of Law has made very remarkable achievements in the School of Domestic Law by focusing on the early layout and high position of the construction of digital jurisprudence. In the future, Southeast University School of Law can further focus on the real intersection of law and computers, promote the integration of digital jurisprudence and the rule of law relating to foreign affairs, and with a forward-looking vision in the field of new technology to plan ahead of the layout, to seize the first opportunity for the construction of digital jurisprudence.
Prof. Ouyang Benqi, Dean of Law School of Southeast University, made a concluding speech. Dean Ouyang Benqi firstly thanked the experts for their attentive guidance, and said that the current new round of scientific and technological revolution is developing rapidly and advancing in an integrated manner, which has profoundly changed the mode of legal education and the way of legal theory research. Southeast University School of Law is precisely in this new situation to accurately recognize the change, take the initiative to seek change, vigorously develop digital jurisprudence and other emerging, cross-disciplines, in the school's strong engineering, advantageous science, high-quality liberal arts, characteristics of the medical field, to enhance the emerging and strengthen the cross-discipline disciplinary layout, to carry out digital jurisprudence theoretical research and talent cultivation with the help of a large-scale project, a large-scale platform. Talent Cultivation. The construction of new liberal arts has just started, and the development of digital jurisprudence has a long way to go. The College will take this seminar as an opportunity to break the inertia and path dependence, identify the entry point and breakthrough of the characteristic cross-specialties, unite and lead the digital jurisprudence team to serve the national strategic needs and economic and social development goals, and cultivate more competitive and adaptable composite legal talents in the future.