Developing legal services to support free trade conference by Centre for Common Law Renmin University of China

• Author: YUAN Hui
• Pages: 333-335

FRONTIERS OF LAW IN CHINA

VOL. 12 JUNE 2017 NO. 2

DOI 10.3868/s050-006-017-0017-1

ACADEMIC NEWS

DEVELOPING LEGAL SERVICES TO SUPPORT FREE TRADE CONFERENCE BY

CENTRE FOR COMMON LAW RENMIN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA

On March 19, 2017, the Centre for Common Law of Renmin University of China and

the Great Britain China Centre held a specialist one-day legal conference on “Developing

Legal Service to Support Free Trade” in Shanghai.

Over 30 legal academics, practitioners and policy-advisors from four jurisdictions:

England and Wales, Scotland, China and Hong Kong attended the conference, including

representatives of the Law Society of England and Wales, the Law Society of Scotland,

the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Hong Kong Bar Association, the Law Society

of Hong Kong, the All China Lawyers Association, the Shanghai Lawyers Association,

and the Beijing Lawyers Association, etc.

Professor JIANG Dong, the Assistant Director of the Centre for Common Law,

chaired the opening remark session. He welcomed the guests to the conference and

explained the essential role of the legal services in the promotion of free trade, especially

in the context of establishing free trade zones and in the course of the Belt and Road

Initiative promoted by the Chinese leadership. Mr. YU Weifeng, the President of the

Shanghai Lawyer Association gave the opening remarks and briefed the basic information

about the law firms and legal services in Shanghai and his own perceptions on the

internationalization of legal services through various collaborations. Mr. Robert Bourns,

the President of the Law Society of England and Wales, introduced the fruit of their work

over the past few years in the field of collaboration with different jurisdictions, so as to

serve the need of legal services and called for partnership in all walks of legal services in

the future, including training and seminars, etc. Professor SHI Yan’an, the

Secretary-General of the Centre for Common Law and the Vice Dean of the Renmin

University Law School stressed on the role of common law in the construction of legal

framework in international trades, explained the teaching methodology of the Centre for

Common Law, and expressed his hope of cooperation among different jurisdictions, law

societies and law schools. At last, Professor SHI conveyed his best wishes to this

meaningful conference and showed his gratitude to all the participants.

The first session was on the legal education and training, which was also chaired by

Professor JIANG Dong. Steven Thompson QC, the Vice-Chair of the International

Committee and the Head of the China Interest Group of the Bar Council of England and

Wales, emphasized on the legal education’s compatibility and facilitate understanding

with the participants’ legal culture in order to promote collaborations with the clients and