On the afternoon of 26th October, ‘Seminar on the Construction of Digital Law Undergraduate Micro-professions in the Context of New Liberal Arts’ was held in the Lecture Hall on the first floor of Ridong, Sipailou Campus of Southeast University. Professor Wei Zhixun, Dean of the School of Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Professor Chen Liang, Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Associate Professor Zhang Qishan, Associate Dean of the School of Law, Shandong University (Weihai), Professor Xie Hongxing, Associate Dean of the School of Law, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Professor Deng Jinting, Director of the National Laboratory of Digital Supervision and Governance, Renmin University of China, Researcher Wei Bin, Executive Director of the Digital Rule of Law Laboratory of the Guanghua School of Law, Zhejiang University, and Research Fellow Wei Bin, Executive Director of the Digital Law Institute, Northwest University of Political Science and Law. Associate Professor Yang Jinfan, Executive Director of Digital Law Research Institute of Northwestern University of Political Science and Law, Associate Professor Zhang Yujie, Director of Digital Law Teaching and Research Centre of Guangzhou University School of Law, and Mr. Duan Luping, Director of Experimental (Practice) Teaching Centre, visited the meeting to give guidance. Professor Shan Pingji, Associate Dean of Southeast University School of Law, Professor Wang Lusheng, Director of Future Rule of Law and Digital Intelligence Technology Innovation Laboratory of Southeast University, Associate Director Yang Jie, Associate Professor Zhang Xuelian, Associate Professor Ren Danli, Associate Professor Yu Tao, Associate Professor Xu Minchuan, Mr Bi Wenxuan, Mr Bi Sheng, and students of the laboratory attended the seminar. The seminar was hosted by Associate Professor Xu Minchuan and Associate Professor Yang Jie.
In the opening speech of the meeting, Vice Dean Shan Pingji of Law School of Southeast University firstly expressed his warm welcome and thanks to the participating experts for coming to guide the seminar, and introduced the concept and achievements of the construction of digital law discipline in Southeast University.
Professor Wang Lusheng, the person in charge of the construction of digital law micro-profession, reported the construction plan of digital law micro-profession of Southeast University to the experts. With the support of the Law School and relying on the Future Rule of Law and Digital Intelligence Technology Innovation Laboratory, the ‘Digital Law’ project is one of the first 15 micro-professional construction projects approved by Southeast University. The micro-professional is dedicated to cultivating complex and innovative talents with national sentiment and international vision, interdisciplinary knowledge of digital science and technology and digital economy, and potential for further study in the field of digital law; the construction of the micro-professional is proposed to construct the curriculum based on the idea of ‘special courses + special elements integrated into the traditional curriculum’, and is open to the second-year undergraduate students of the whole university. The construction of the programme will be based on the idea of ‘characteristic courses and characteristic elements integrated into traditional courses’. While reporting the construction programme, Professor Wang Lusheng talked about the dilemmas and difficulties faced by the construction of micro-professionalism, and sought valuable opinions from the experts around four aspects, namely, curriculum, faculty team, teaching materials and experimental design.
In the theme of the seminar, the participating experts shared their work experience in the cultivation of digital law undergraduate talents. Chen Liang, Dean of Artificial Intelligence Law School of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, emphasized the status and role of legal education in the legal innovation ecosystem; he put forward the cultivation concept of ‘implanting scientific and technological genes into law students’ based on the experience of the construction of experimental class of science and technology law in Southwest University of Political Science and Law and introduced the setting scheme of the curriculum of law, integration and technology courses under the guidance of this concept. He also introduced the curriculum of law, integration and technology courses under the guidance of this concept. At the same time, Dean Chen Liang also emphasised that the organisation of academic conferences, student publications, book clubs and other forms are conducive to the creation of an academic atmosphere, and the introduction of enterprise cooperation can also help to make up for the inadequacy of the integration of ‘law-technology’.
Xie Hongxing, Vice Dean of Law School of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, introduced the construction of data law programme in his school. Focusing on the urgent need for the cultivation of composite legal talents in the era of digital economy, this major combines the disciplinary advantages of the University of Digital Finance and Economics, integrates interdisciplinary courses such as economics and digital science into the cultivation programme, and innovates the cultivation mode through the legal science and technology workshop and cooperation between the industry, academia and research institutes to promote the cultivation of composite rule of law talents who are ‘legal-savvy, economic-savvy, and digitally-intelligent’ (‘LED’). LED’ to promote the realisation of the goal of cultivating “law-savvy, economy-savvy, digital-smart” (LED) composite rule of law talents.
Zhang Qishan, Vice Dean of Shandong University (Weihai) Law School, introduced the special class of ‘Computational Law’. Shandong University (Weihai) Law School is the first undergraduate department to establish ‘computational law’. Vice Dean Zhang Qishan shared his experience in the construction of the discipline in terms of top-level design, faculty, curriculum and platform construction.
Professor Deng Jinting, Director of the National Digital Oversight and Governance Laboratory of Renmin University of China (RUC), shared RUC's experience in cultivating talents in digital law. Professor Deng said that NPC has established a cross-institute through the introduction of full-time engineers, set up a new digital jurisprudence course, and provided support for the publication of relevant teaching materials. Professor Deng also suggested that schools can address the core issues of digital law construction by clarifying the training objectives, building a practical training environment for digital law, and exploring cross-school cooperation between teachers and students.
Researcher Wei Bin, Executive Director of Digital Rule of Law Laboratory, Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University, introduced the construction experience of ZJU Digital Rule of Law Excellence Undergraduate Class. The curriculum of ZJU Digital Rule of Law Excellence Undergraduate Class covers different professional fields such as law, mathematics, programming, computer, etc., and explores the model of through training of bachelor's and master's degrees; it enriches the innovative means of talent cultivation and scientific research and practice by means of case seminars, development of large models of law, and opening of international journals.
Yang Jinfan, Executive Director of Digital Law Research Institute of Northwest University of Political Science and Law, shared the construction experience of digital law micro-professional. Yang introduced the background of the Institute of Digital Law and the development history of digital law, detailed the curriculum of digital law consisting of three major sections, namely, legal application, basic principles and legal practice, and demonstrated the results of professional construction and talent cultivation; at last, Yang also promoted the development of digital law from ‘micro-professions’ to ‘real professions’. Finally, Dean Yang also made an outlook on the promotion of digital law from ‘micro-professional’ to ‘real professional’.
Director Zhang Yujie of Digital Law Teaching and Research Centre and Director Duan Luping of Experimental (Practice) Teaching Centre of Guangzhou University Law School introduced the experience of digital law curriculum teaching and practice teaching of Guangzhou University Law School respectively. In terms of curriculum teaching, Director Zhang Yujie introduced the overall situation of the programme in detail from the aspects of curriculum system, academic system, tuition fee, degree certificate, etc. and put forward the idea of joint courses of virtual teaching and research departments. On practical teaching, Director Duan Luping introduced the achievements and difficulties of curriculum construction from three aspects, namely, the whole process curriculum system, university-enterprise-government-enterprise collaborative education, and ‘Internet+’ innovation and entrepreneurship courses.
Dean Wei Zhixun of the Law School of Shanghai University of Political Science and Law introduced the construction experience and main achievements of the institute in the cultivation of legal talents with artificial intelligence. Dean Wei proposed that additional basic courses such as mathematics and programming should be provided to improve students' academic self-reliance, and suggested that the quality of talents should be improved by modifying the academic system as well as the degree conferment programme.
The free discussion session was moderated by Yang Jie, Deputy Director of Future Rule of Law and Digital Intelligence Technology Innovation Laboratory of Southeast University. Deputy Director Yang Jie said that there are differences between undergraduate micro-professional construction and postgraduate disciplinary construction goals, and that there is a need to reasonably allocate the professional basic courses and elective courses involved in micro-professionals, and to clarify the sources and destinations of the student population.
Associate Professor Ren Danli firstly thanked the leaders for sharing their experiences, suggested that it is advisable to integrate case studies into the design of teaching content, and suggested that the basic part of traditional law courses should be embedded into the existing courses in order to reduce the pressure of students.
Associate Professor Xue-Lian Zhang talked about the motivation of students to choose the cross-law programme and suggested that the digital law micro-profession should be set up in the second or third year of undergraduate studies to meet students' learning needs.
The participating doctoral students also shared their learning experiences and gains from the seminar, and expressed their personal ideas and suggestions on the construction of the digital law micro-profession from the students' perspective.
At the closing ceremony of the meeting, Professor Wang Lusheng summarised the experience of the construction of digital law microspecialty in each university and planned the future direction of cooperation in terms of the sharing of teaching resources and the exchange mechanism of excellent student sources.
This seminar fully discussed the experience of digital law professional construction and talent cultivation, pointed out the direction for further improving the ‘digital law’ micro-professional construction programme of Southeast University, and also laid a foundation for inter-university cooperation in digital law talent cultivation. The success of the seminar will promote the cultivation of digital law talents and discipline construction of Southeast University to a new level!
(Cui Rongzhen, Ren Guohong, Chang Weijie)