In order to promote the reform of law education in China under the new situation, explore the implementation of the spirit of the "Excellent Talents Training Plan" of the Ministry of Education in the field of law, improve the quality of law education, and cultivate high-level legal professionals who really meet the needs of society, Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University, under the auspices of Dean Ji Weidong, decided to pilot a full-time LLM special student class (hereinafter referred to as the "Fakot class") from 20 10.
Try the background and basic positioning of Koteban first.
In the past 30 years of reform and opening up, especially in the last ten years, China's higher legal education has developed rapidly, forming a multi-level legal talent training system including undergraduate law, master of law (illegal undergraduate law, bachelor of law), master of law and doctor of law. At the same time, however, the training of legal talents is also faced with practical difficulties: on the one hand, the overall supply of legal talents exceeds demand, the employment rate of law graduates is very low, even ranking at the bottom of liberal arts majors, and most of them have taken office in jobs unrelated to law; On the other hand, high-level legal talents who truly meet the needs of society, especially international high-end legal talents, are very scarce. This embarrassing situation calls for the reform of the training mode of legal talents. The trial method of Koteban in Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University is a useful attempt to carry out legal education and teaching reform under this background, aiming at establishing a classified training mode for high-level legal academic talents and high-level legal professionals based on the concept of paying equal attention to general education and professional education. Among them, for the training of high-level legal talents, efforts should be made to promote the through training mechanism for undergraduates and postgraduates. The starting point is to set up special classes, select outstanding students to enter the postgraduate legal vocational courses in advance, and receive long-term, systematic and high-level legal vocational education.
Specifically, the "Fakete class" refers to the diversion of law undergraduates from Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University at the end of the third semester. According to the students' grades in the first three academic years and their voluntary registration, a certain number of outstanding students are selected through exemption recommendation and comprehensive quality test, and they will enter the postgraduate stage in advance from the fourth year of undergraduate study, so that students can receive high-level legal vocational education in a through-training way and obtain a master's degree in law for six years, including the undergraduate stage. Therefore, the basic orientation of Facht Class of Shanghai Jiaotong University is a high-level legal vocational education focusing on judicial and foreign-related legal affairs.
Compared with the convenient "4+2" mode in the system, the "3+3" mode of the Fakete class avoids the waste of time of a large number of internships for law undergraduates in the fourth year, makes the high-level legal vocational education better connected in time, deeper and more substantial in content, and provides a systematic and reasonable arrangement for practical training and study or inspection by overseas famous schools. The training goal of this high-level legal vocational education is not only to improve students' employability, but more importantly, to train senior legal talents who have a real international perspective and adapt to the new situation of China's development in the 2/kloc-0 century.
Second, try the main system design and measures of Kotban.
Trying Koteban involves many problems, and the following are its main system design and measures:
(1) About the source of students, selection methods and admission categories of Fakot class.
Selecting outstanding students who meet the requirements is the basis and key to trying Koteban. Due to the professional background and "3+3" mode of law undergraduate course, Fakote class can't pass the national unified postgraduate examination held every year 1 month, and can only be selected by the way of exemption recommendation at the end of the third year of undergraduate course. In the pilot stage, the students in the Fakot class are limited to the outstanding law undergraduates in Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University, that is, after the third year of law undergraduates, a certain number of students (the first batch is 15) are selected to enter the characteristic class and receive high-level legal vocational education focusing on judicial and foreign-related legal affairs in advance.
Originally, the normal exemption for undergraduates could not begin until the first semester of the fourth grade started. In order to ensure the normal enrollment and study of students in the first semester of grade four, Kaiyuan Law School, after consultation with the Academic Affairs Office and the Graduate School, advanced the exemption and comprehensive quality test to the end of the second semester of grade three and the early summer vacation (mid-July). In view of the basic orientation of Fakot education and the establishment of a new master of law (law), Fakot class of Shanghai Jiaotong University is included in the enrollment category and academic framework of full-time master of law (law).
(2) The allocation and training requirements of teachers in Fakot class.
Fakot class is mainly taught by teachers with profound professional knowledge, rich practical experience and strong vocational education ability in Kaiyuan Law School. Some courses can be taught by a certain number of well-known experts outside the school, especially scholar judges, prosecutors and lawyers in the judicial field. The extra-long class implements the dual tutorial system. In addition to the teachers in our college, a certain number of experts from relevant practical departments are appointed as tutors, and they are systematically arranged to go to courts, procuratorates, high-end law firms and the legal departments of multinational companies for one-on-one guidance for half a year. In addition, exchange training with famous universities at home and abroad is arranged appropriately, or opportunities to study in world-class law schools are provided.
The teaching of Fakot class focuses on cultivating students' legal professional ability. The main professional courses are taught in the way of thematic research, comparative analysis and gradual deepening of legal thinking, and oral education, case analysis, group study and planned and step-by-step practical training are strengthened to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of independent research and competition performance, and pay attention to the improvement of basic legal theoretical knowledge and the cultivation of practical ability. There are better standardization requirements in course teaching. The teacher of each course writes a course summary (mainly including handouts, teaching contents, teaching materials and reference books, examination methods and grading standards, interview time, messages to students, etc.). ) and write a unified format of teaching materials.
(c) Courses on the Farcot class
After three years' systematic study of basic courses for law undergraduates, the curriculum of Fakot class is unique. The main points are as follows: 1. Reduce general courses or pure theory courses, and some courses that have been offered in undergraduate stage and have little connection with practice will no longer be involved in master's stage, and correspondingly increase legal operation skills and courses in frontier fields of law; 2. Elective courses combined with the reform of general elective courses in Shanghai Jiaotong University, students can take elective courses across majors and grades, and some specialized courses and seminars taught in foreign languages can start from international students. 3. No major. If students are particularly interested in a difficult field, they can take courses across departments under the independent guidance of tutors, or they can complete the learning process through literature research in the thesis writing stage; 4. Overall credit control of course teaching, leaving enough extra-curricular time for students to read, think, discuss, preview and review, and expanding self-development space in a specific professional direction; 5. The professional internship lasts for 6 months, mainly going to courts, procuratorates, high-end law firms and the legal department of multinational companies. Under the guidance of the teacher, involving major legal business; 6. In the positioning of modular curriculum, civil law, criminal law and procedural law constitute the core of the curriculum, while economic law and commercial law emphasize the intersection with other disciplines. The course of legal basic theory emphasizes the perfection of students' legal personality, the overall grasp of legal operation and the cultivation and edification of legal thinking mode, while the course of legal vocational skills emphasizes comprehensiveness and practicality, which urges students to actively participate in and plan their own career in this process.
(4) About the comprehensive quality test of Facht class.
On the basis of the ranking of law undergraduate students in the first three years, the selection of students in Fakete class adopts the method of comprehensive quality test, adheres to the principle of "strict entry and strict exit", moderately increases the difficulty of entrance examination, and selects the best candidates. Through the test, students' logical reasoning ability, analytical and argumentation ability, Chinese and English writing ability, oral expression ability and basic knowledge of law are emphatically examined. The comprehensive quality test is held once a year in the middle of July every year.
(5) Other related matters.
In order to link up with the existing postgraduate recruitment system, Fakot class is trained as a graduate student in the first grade, but it is still managed according to the identity of undergraduates. Students admitted to Facht class can accumulate their credits in the first year of postgraduate study into their credits in undergraduate study, and at the end of the first year of postgraduate study, they will obtain the Bachelor of Law degree and Bachelor of Law degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Strive to recommend students who have been carefully trained and have sufficient internship experience to relatively advanced judicial organs, administrative organs and other high-end legal departments for internship and employment. Of course, the premise of employment in courts, procuratorates and government legal departments is that special students pass judicial examinations and civil service examinations.
The fees charged by the students in Fakot class are implemented according to the charging policy of the Ministry of Education for the newly added Master of Laws (Law), and they enjoy ordinary scholarships. At the same time, Kaiyuan Law School actively strives to provide special scholarships for students in special classes. Tuition payment and scholarship acquisition of students admitted to special classes begin in the second year of special classes, and the annual tuition is still paid according to the tuition standard of the fourth year of undergraduate courses in the first year of special classes. The fees for studying in overseas prestigious schools shall be determined separately according to relevant agreements.
Third, try the significance of Koteban in the reform of legal education.
The pilot scheme of Kaite Class in Kaiyuan Law School inherits the tradition of Shanghai Jiaotong University to concentrate high-quality resources to train elite talents, and echoes the general trend of national education reform (20 10 is China's "year of education reform"), aiming at establishing a high-level legal professional training mechanism with long cycle and new teaching methods, and cultivating a group of legal elite talents such as judges, prosecutors and government civil servants with profound legal knowledge and broad international vision. This attempt makes full use of the existing institutional resources, realizing the "seamless connection" between the undergraduate education of law and the master education of law, and the "seamless connection" between the undergraduate education of law and the master education of law (law) newly introduced by the Ministry of Education, which can not only highlight the characteristics and advantages of Shanghai Jiaotong University in the training of legal talents, but also produce a certain demonstration effect in the national legal education reform, providing a new training model for high-level legal talents.
The significance of trying the Cote class is far from limited to the elite training of a few students who enter the special class, and it will also cause reflection on the concept and teaching methods of legal education, thus affecting the whole legal education. For example, it urges us to further consider the orientation of undergraduate legal education and its connection with postgraduate education. At present, it is common sense to position legal education as legal vocational education, but it is still a difficult and sometimes even contradictory problem to handle the relationship between general education and professional education. In fact, there is no contradiction between general education and professional education in the undergraduate stage of law, and the legal profession orientation can be implemented on the basis of general education. On the one hand, excellent legal talents not only need profound basic knowledge of legal theory and skilled legal professional skills, but also need extensive knowledge in related fields. Therefore, undergraduates majoring in law must strengthen the general education of humanities and social sciences and related natural sciences in order to expand their knowledge. On the other hand, after all, the undergraduate education of law has a specific career orientation, that is, students engage in the legal profession after graduation, which requires basic professional qualities, including the basic knowledge of the legal subject system, the basic quality of the legal profession and the basic skills to engage in this profession. The relatively systematic high-level legal vocational education should be mainly carried out in the later period of undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The "3+3" academic system can better realize the combination of general education and professional education in the undergraduate stage of law, and the connection between postgraduate stage and legal vocational education, which may represent a basic development trend and mode choice of legal vocational education in the future. For another example, Kotban, a trial method, requires a major reform of teaching methods, emphasizing the ability of students to think independently, solve practical problems, express and communicate, integrate knowledge and cooperate in teams through dialogue teaching, precedent teaching, practical training, business negotiation, organization practice and project teaching, which will inevitably lead to the reform of teaching methods of law education at undergraduate and other levels, and its effect has radiation and diffusion effects.
In addition, the pilot scheme of Koteban is also an integral part of the pilot reform of professional degree postgraduate education in Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University. On June 2010, 5438+00, the Ministry of Education issued the Notice of the Ministry of Education on Agreeing to Carry out the Pilot Work of Comprehensive Reform of Professional Degree Postgraduate Education in Colleges and Universities (Teaching and Research [2010] No.2), and announced the list of pilot universities nationwide to implement the comprehensive reform of professional degree postgraduate education, and 64 universities nationwide became pilot units. Among them, the master of law of Shanghai Jiaotong University is the only comprehensive reform pilot major in Shanghai that has been selected as the national master of law category. Kaiyuan Law School will take the opportunity of this pilot to make further exploration in the trial of Koteban.
Get a doctor's degree in law.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University received the first-class degree of doctor of law from Kaiyuan Law School.
A few days ago, the the State Council Academic Degrees Committee issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the List of First-level Subjects Authorized by Doctoral and Master's Degrees in 20 10 (Degree No. 20 1 18). After deliberation at the 28th meeting of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee, it was approved that Shanghai Jiaotong University would add 10 first-class doctoral programs, and law is one of them. This marks a new step in the discipline construction of Kaiyuan Law School of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
The legal education of Shanghai Jiaotong University can be traced back to the special political course of Nanyang Public College in the early 20th century. After the reform and opening-up, Shanghai Jiaotong University set up a law teaching and research department in 1986, opened a law undergraduate program in 1992, enrolled the first batch of undergraduates in 1993, set up a law department in 1996, and 1998 was granted the right to confer a master's degree in law. According to the needs of building a "comprehensive, research-oriented and international" world-class university, Shanghai Jiaotong University established its Law School in June 2002, with an initial investment of 25 million yuan, which opened a new stage of the development of law education in Shanghai Jiaotong University. In 2003, he was awarded the right to confer a master's degree in law, and in 2006, he was awarded the right to confer a master's degree in law and a doctorate in constitutional law and administrative law. In July 2007, the Liao Kaiyuan Foundation of the United States donated $30 million to build a law school, which created a brand-new opportunity for the development of law education in Shanghai Jiaotong University. In April 2008, in the second round of the second batch of discipline evaluation initiated by the Center for Degree and Postgraduate Education Development of the Ministry of Education, Shanghai Jiaotong University ranked tenth among the first-class disciplines of law. Law has been included in the future dominant discipline of Shanghai Jiaotong University, which is an important part of building a world-class university and one of the highlights of "selective pursuit of Excellence" in humanities and social sciences departments.
The law discipline of Shanghai Jiao Tong University adheres to the development idea of "entering the mainstream and creating characteristics" and has formed a complete multi-level legal talent training system in its rapid development. At the same time, the idea and goal of "high starting point, internationalization, thick foundation and emphasis on practice" have been established, and high-level personnel training has been promoted by high-level scientific research, forming a characteristic road for universities with obvious advantages in science and engineering to train elite legal talents, especially in classification training and internationalization. 20 10 undergraduate law major was approved by the Ministry of education and the Ministry of finance as the sixth batch of specialty construction sites in colleges and universities, and the master of law was approved by the Ministry of education as the pilot of comprehensive reform of postgraduate education in colleges and universities, which is the only comprehensive reform major in Shanghai that was selected as the national master of law. In order to train senior legal talents who can really meet the needs of society, the Law School started to offer "Three-Three Law Courses" in 20 10, and selected about 15 law majors from the fourth year of undergraduate course (obtaining postgraduate qualification without examination), entered the postgraduate course ahead of time, received long-term, systematic and professional high-level legal vocational education, and realized the through training of undergraduate and master.
After obtaining the first-class doctorate in law, Kaiyuan Law School will further explore the characteristic road of cultivating high-level legal academic talents in combination with the third phase of the "985" project of Shanghai Jiaotong University.