INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF CHINESE LEGAL SYSTEM

Seventy students from the University of New South Wales Law School are about to embark on a course run in Beijing to increase their understanding of the Chinese legal system.

Hosted by the China University of Political Science and Law, it's the third time the undergraduate course will be run.

According to the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Paul Redmond, when China opened up its economy barely twenty years ago, law and the legal system lost the pariah role under which they had been cast during the proletarian revolution. "This course examines the role that law is playing in Modern China by reference to its historical antecedents," Professor Redmond said.

The course covers a range of aspects of Chinese law including legal institutions, legal history, intellectual property, contracts, corporate law and civil enforcement procedures. It's a two week course structured so the first half of the day is taken up with lectures and in the afternoons, the students are taken on a field trip around Beijing to the Chinese Court, law firms, the State Bureau of Intellectual property as well as tourist locations.

According to Professor Redmond it's important for students to have an international perspective and an appreciation of different conceptions of the function and province of law. "It also builds on growing links between Asia and Australia, though we have a good number of students at UNSW with a Chinese backgrounds so there are already bridges between the two countries."

The course runs from 7 - 18 January 2002, with students needing to rug up for their studies in mid-winter Beijing.

CONTACT DETAILS: Paul Gwynne, tel. 9385 3699 or Sarah Martin/UNSW Public Affairs and Development, tel. 9385 3192 or email s.martin@unsw.edu.au