CHINA UNIVERSITY OF POLITICS AND LAW

The China University of Politics and Law in Beijing is a predominate cradle of New China's legislators, jurists, judges, prosecutors and lawyers, and an up-and-comer in international studies of Chinese law and language by overseas scholars.

Through its 45-year history, the university has grown up from its predecessor the Beijing College of Politics and Law, acquiring the magnitude and modernity of a key multi-level and multi-specialty institute, which, among all of its like in the country, enjoys advantages in the science of law.

Even at its commencement in the 1950s, the Beijing College of Politics and Law absorbed the elites of political and legal faculty from the then Beijing University, Qinghua University, Yanjing University and Fu-ren University. Since then, the college and its successor have trained, among others, one of the country's first groups of law talents who later assumed leading roles in building up the nation's legal system.

The college's prominence drew the attention of New China's founder Mao Zedong, who himself endowed the college an inscription of its name. Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping observed the Mao style and inscribed the new name of the China University of Politics and Law in 1983.

Today, the university has gained rather high prestige thanks mostly to its hundreds of professors and associate professors. Among its faculty of 666 people, 327 have gained senior professional titles.

The university is mainly composed of the following:

1). Five schools: Postgraduate School, School of International Studies, Adults Education School, School of Central Cadres in Political Science and Law Management, and School of Political Science and Management;

2). Two training centres: China Training Centre for Senior Notary Publics and Lawyers and China Training Centre for International Talents of Law;

3). Four departments: Department of Law, Department of Economic Law, Department of International Economic Law, and Department of Foreign Languages;

4). Three sections: sections of Basics, Marxist and Leninist Theories, and Sports;

5). And five institutes and a number of research centres.

Currently more than 13,800 students have registered to study at the university. They are either seeking doctorate, master's or bachelor's degrees, or are studying on-campus on three-year terms or off-campus through correspondence. Among the students are hundreds of foreigners and those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Since the university introduced the overseas programs in 1993 upon approval by the State, it has received students from the Republic of Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, Russia, Malaysia as well as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Moreover, the university has received nearly 600 foreign visitors from more than 40 countries and regions, and has invited dozens of foreign professors and other experts as travelling scholars or pecial lecturers since 1983. Close international exchanges have now expanded to the United States, Japan, Italy, Germany and China's Taiwan Province, Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. The university has also been sending students to a number of countries and regions.

As a Chinese practice, all state universities will be subject to the guidance of a certain government department. In 1960, the former Beijing College of Politics and Law was listed a key college directly under the Ministry of Education. Since 1983, the university has been placed under the guidance of the Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China.

The university's library is another of its pride. Housing 600,000 books on a floor space of 20,000 square metres, it actually has the largest collection of legal publications in the country.

The university's management has been diversified. It now runs the China University of Politics and Law Press and the Beijing Fada Law Firm.