From 13 October to 22 December 2024, led by Professor Meng Hongzhi of Southeast University School of Law, nine experts in theory and practice from Southeast University School of Law, Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee, Jiangsu Provincial People's Procuratorate, Jiangsu Provincial Higher People's Court, Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, Jiangsu Bostar Law Firm, Beijing Hengdu (Nanjing) Law Firm, and Dacheng (Nanjing) Law Firm A team of nine theoretical and practical experts from Beijing Hengdu Law Firm and Dacheng Law Firm taught the course of Legal Professional Ethics to more than 200 full-time and part-time master's degree students of the class of 2024 in our college. Relying on solid theoretical foundation and rich practical experience, the experts explained to the students in a vivid way the ethical norms and professional conduct in various legal professions.

The Relationship between Virtue and Rule of Law: An Overview of Legal Professional Ethics

  On 13 October 2024, Professor Meng Hongzhi, the course leader of ‘Ethics in the Legal Profession’, gave a lecture on the relationship between the rule of law and the rule of ethics and the general issues of ethics in the legal profession. At the beginning of the course, Mr Meng firstly told the students about the purpose of the course, the learning method and the requirements of the course, and then explained the relationship between the rule of law and the rule of law government and morality and law around the theory and practice of the construction of the rule of law government in the new era. Firstly, Mr Meng deeply analysed the core content of Xi Jinping's thought on the rule of law and answered why China takes the road of the rule of law. Secondly, he talked in detail about the basic concepts and basic requirements for the construction of the rule of law government in the new era. Finally, Mr Meng focused on analysing some major difficulties in the construction of the rule of law government at present and put forward corresponding countermeasures.

Code of Conduct for Civil Servants: Theory and Institutional Practice of Lawful Administration

  On 20 October, Professor Meng Hongzhi gave a lecture on Code of Conduct for Civil Servants and Institutional Practice of Rule of Law Government Construction. First of all, Professor Meng pointed out that the code of conduct for civil servants is an important part of the civil servant training and legal professional ethics courses, and that understanding and complying with the code of conduct for civil servants is of great significance to the administration according to law. Then, Professor Meng sorted out the history of civil servants‘ code of conduct represented by civil servants’ law, and the types of civil servants' code of conduct such as political code of conduct, code of clean conduct, code of professional ethics, code of confidentiality, code of conduct on foreign affairs, code of official documents, and code of conduct on language and gestures and behaviours. Finally, according to China's ‘6 + X’ administrative legal system to develop the legal system of civil servants to regulate the conduct of the legal system was analysed, through the combination of a number of administrative cases, for the students vividly taught the theory of administration by law and the practice of the system.

Professional Norms of Intellectual Property Work

  On 27th October, Professor Hu Chaoyang gave a lecture on professional norms of intellectual property work to the students. Before the lecture, Professor Hu raised two questions for the students to think about, namely, ‘When a lawyer accepts a client's commission, how to evaluate the lawyer's work that has been commissioned by the client before?’ and ‘How to evaluate that a good lawyer may not be a good person, and a good person may not be a good lawyer? And ‘how to evaluate the good lawyer may not be a good person, good person may not be a good lawyer?’ And with the students on the thinking of the question to start exchanges and interaction. Then, Professor Hu further introduced the types of relationship between lawyers and their peers and the specific rules of the relationship through case studies, and at the same time, he clarified the identity of lawyers and their employment relationship with law firms, and emphasised the work responsibilities of lawyers and law firms. Finally, Professor Hu focused on the professional norms of intellectual property service work, distinguishing between intellectual property non-litigation legal service work and intellectual property litigation legal service agency work, and giving students a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the professional norms that intellectual property workers should comply with when facing different business.

Theory and Practice of Administrative Law Enforcement

  On 3 November, Zhu Jianxin, a member of the Trial Committee of Nanjing Intermediate People's Court, gave a lecture on the theory and practice of administrative law enforcement to the students, revealing the problems of administrative law enforcement practice and pointing out the direction of improvement through the empirical analysis of administrative litigation. Zhu Jianxin firstly analysed the overall situation of administrative litigation in China, pointing out that the number of administrative litigation cases has been on the rise, and that there is a concentration of fields and types of administrative litigation cases. Secondly, he pointed out that in administrative law enforcement, there are illegal situations such as violating the law of authority and power, applying the law wrongly, violating the legal procedures, lack of reasonable concern, insufficient compensation, improper function of reconsideration and so on. Finally, Zhu Jianxin proposed that the normative construction of law enforcement should be improved in four aspects: the requirements of the rule of law, the guarantee of quality and efficiency, the expectations of the people, and the focus of supervision.

Code of conduct for lawyers: rules for the relationship between lawyers and adjudicating authorities

  On 10th November, Zhou Lianyong, executive director, partner and senior lawyer of Jiangsu Bosda Law Firm, gave a lecture on the rules of relationship between lawyers and adjudicating authorities to the students. Zhou's lecture mainly focused on five parts: the special duties of lawyers, the professional obligations of lawyers, the relationship between lawyers and the main parties, the public responsibility of lawyers, and the ethics of lawyers as administrators. When talking about the relationship between lawyers and their peers, Zhou put forward the principle of ‘three mutual’: mutual appreciation, mutual reminder and mutual achievement. Then when introducing the operation rules of the law firm, he shared his own experience with the summary of the ‘six six road’ experience: the work has a sound and colour; life is tasty; people have feelings and righteousness; young lawyers to ask the way to catch up; backbone lawyers to lead the way to pave the way; senior lawyers to let the way to point the way. In addition, Zhou Lianyong also put forward for the students about the school learning life of valuable suggestions, such as insist on physical exercise, consult the experience of predecessors and pay attention to cutting-edge news and so on.

Code of Conduct for Lawyers - Rules of Relationship between Lawyers and Prosecutors

  On 17 November, Director Xi Chao of Beijing Hengdu (Nanjing) Law Firm gave a lecture focusing on the rules of relationship between lawyers and prosecutors. Firstly, Director Xi Chao talked about the relationship between lawyers and prosecutors from four aspects: the connection between lawyers and prosecutors, the differences, the types of professional ethical relationships, and the importance of establishing a good relationship. Secondly, Director Xichao details the general norms of the relationship between lawyers and prosecutors around four aspects: the goal of the rule of law, case handling, judicial integrity, and mutual supervision. Finally, he talked about the rules of the relationship between lawyers and prosecutors in criminal proceedings, which are mainly embodied in equal relationship, confrontation relationship and collaboration relationship. In addition, Director Xichao, as a lawyer with rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience, also shared with the students the expansion of the ‘wisdom of lawyers’, which gave them a deeper understanding of the profession of lawyers, and also provided valuable suggestions on career choice and determination of the direction of study for the students.

Code of Conduct for Lawyers: Rules for the Relationship between Lawyers and Clients

  On 24th November, Mr. Li Chen, Senior Partner of Dacheng Law Offices, shared with the students the basic skills of oral and written expression with the theme of ‘Gossip’ expression. At the beginning of the course, Mr Li Chen pointed out the absolute need for the skill of ‘expression’ in the profession of lawyers, which is not only an expression of one's legal career mindset, but also an excellent way to expand business, and emphasised that At the same time, he stressed that ‘professional thinking is the nature of lawyers’. Regarding oral expression, Li Chen proposed to make prepared expression, and analysed the four qualities of ‘self-confidence, clarity, professionalism and affinity’ required for prepared expression. Regarding written expression, Mr Li introduced the writing skills of legal documents from four aspects: understanding the demand, determining the audience, completing the research and making the outline, and reminded students to pay attention to the structure and language style. Finally, he emphasised the importance for lawyers to make people remember you, know you and trust you through expression so as to establish a trust-based client relationship.

Professional Ethics and Practice of Prosecutors

  On 1 December, Professor Yin Ji, the first national outstanding public prosecutor and national expert in prosecutorial practice, gave a lecture on ‘Professional Ethics of Prosecutors’ to the students. At the beginning of the course, Professor Yin took the high incidence of judicial indiscipline in recent years as the starting point and emphasised that a qualified judicial officer should not only possess rich professional knowledge, but also high moral qualities. Professor Yin Ji firstly introduced the main features of the people's procuratorial system in five aspects: the political nature of the people's procuratorate, its legal nature, its constitutional status, its mission and its inspection and supervision in the national rule of law system. Subsequently, Prof Yin gave a detailed lecture on the professional ethics and professional responsibilities of prosecutors, summarising the six professional ethics that prosecutors must abide by. Finally, Professor Yin took several cases of social retaliation triggered by the parties' dissatisfaction with the adjudication results as an example, pointing out that judicial officers should not be simplistic in handling cases, but should pay attention to the comprehensive effect of handling cases.

Judges' Professional Ethics and Practice

  On 8 December, Judge Shi Pen of Jiangsu Higher People's Court gave a lecture on professional ethics and practice of judges. Firstly, Judge Shi Pen introduced the basic requirements of judges‘ professional ethics, which are centrally embodied in the Judges Law, the Code of Conduct for Judges, and the Basic Code of Judges’ Professional Ethics, and gave a detailed explanation of the important provisions therein. Subsequently, Judge Shi Pen emphasised to the students the importance of upholding the professional ethics of legal practitioners in the future by introducing typical cases of violation of judges' professional ethics. Finally, he focused on explaining four issues that administrative judges should pay attention to in their practice: first, strengthening the study and accumulation of administrative regulations and normative documents. Secondly, to strengthen the study and research of civil and commercial legal norms, where Judge Shi also put forward to the students the thought-provoking question of ‘how the basis of claim in public law is different from that in civil law’. Thirdly, to strengthen the study and exploration of administrative case adjudication methods, pointed out that the legal search of administrative cases should do ‘five not only to, but also’. Fourthly, communication and co-operation between members of collegiate courts should be strengthened.

Professional Ethics and Practice in Legislation

On 22 December, the last class of the course ‘Ethics in the Legal Profession’ was held. Under the chairmanship of Professor Meng Hongzhi, Mr Wang Laosheng, Director of the Legal Work Committee of the 13th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress, Vice President of the Jiangsu Provincial Law Society and Director of the Academic Committee, gave a lecture on the ‘Theory and Practice of Regional Collaborative Legislation’ to the students. At the beginning of the lecture, Mr Wang Lasheng pointed out that with the deepening of China's reform and opening up and the establishment of market economy, the important role of regional economic and social integration and development has become more and more prominent. However, compared with the active regional economic collaboration and administrative collaboration, regional collaborative legislation is relatively lagging behind the process of regional economic and social integration development. Taking what regional collaborative legislation is, why it is necessary to carry out regional collaborative legislation and how to carry out regional collaborative legislation as the main content, Mr Wang elaborated in detail on the connotation and types of regional collaborative legislation, the significance and legitimacy of regional collaborative legislation, the basic composition and main procedures of regional collaborative legislation as well as the basic situation of local legislative collaboration in the Yangtze River Delta region.