Exercise Collection of Chinese Legal History 21st Century Legal Series Teaching Material Supporting Reference Book

Author: Zhao Xiaogeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Faced with various phenomena in higher legal education, we feel confused and have many concerns: Ten years ago, law was considered one of the "hot majors," but it has long disappeared from the current list of popular majors. Law was originally a highly specialized field, yet many employers feel that law graduates lack professionalism when seeking jobs. Many students spend four years studying law, knowing numerous legal terms, but when asked how to handle a case, they can speak fluently and confidently, full of professional jargon, even discussing German regulations or American theories, yet they are unaware of how China regulates such matters or how to resolve cases within China. Etc. This phenomenon can be termed "the non-specialization of specialized education." In 2005, Professor He Weifang announced online that he would stop admitting graduate students, challenging the current trend of overly emphasizing public courses in postgraduate entrance exams while neglecting students' interests in their majors. These issues in legal education may be related to the broader educational context. Many liberal arts students spend half their time studying foreign languages and the other half playing games after entering university. Since final exams in liberal arts are relatively easy, it is not difficult for students to pass with just credits. Many students cram for exams a month or even a week before the test, so some jokingly say that some liberal arts students actually study for only eight months or less during their four years of university. While we criticize exam-oriented education and emphasize quality education, we have "neglected" specialized education. This "non-specialization" has caused many legal educators and practitioners to worry and be uneasy. If this continues, it will not only have a negative impact on our law students but, in the extreme, may harm China's legal education. Therefore, we suggest that law students should focus on mastering their major and develop it into their own expertise, thereby securing survival and respect through professionalism.
Should university students do exercises? Some people, especially liberal arts students, might ask this question with a mocking tone. For science and engineering students, doing exercises and experiments during their studies is very common, but in liberal arts schools and departments, doing exercises seems like an unusual thing, and some students even feel the "fundamental difference" between university and high school. However, we have specifically compiled this "Exercise Collection" for law students, advocating that law students should also conduct synchronous exercises and self-assessments during their regular studies. This idea stems from the doubts and concerns mentioned above. We hope that through synchronous exercises, we can help and encourage students to truly master the knowledge of their discipline, familiarize themselves with the current laws of China, and gain some insight into cutting-edge academic issues. On a larger scale, we aim to contribute to the "specialized education" of legal education. Specifically, this book aims to achieve the following goals:
1. Help students systematically master the knowledge of their discipline. Completing a course is not just about getting credits; to truly grasp the "essentials" of the discipline, students need at least to complete the foundational work. This "Exercise Collection" includes a "Knowledge Logic Map" section that details the logical relationships between different knowledge points in a chapter. It also provides various types of self-assessment questions that highlight key points and offers detailed and insightful answer analyses. This not only broadens students' horizons but also helps them understand the different forms of exam questions and master their problem-solving methods, while also enhancing their adaptability. In addition to the self-assessment questions for each chapter, the book also includes three mock exams, allowing students to test their learning outcomes after completing the course.
2. Help students pass the National Judicial Examination. After systematically studying law for four years, students should be able to pass the National Judicial Examination with ease. The reality, however, is different, indicating that some students' professional studies are superficial. This "Exercise Collection" selects some classic questions from past National Judicial Examination (Lawyer Qualification Examination) papers to help students understand the difficulty, perspectives, and formats of the exam, enabling targeted study and review.
3. Help students prepare for postgraduate entrance exams. On one hand, it selects some questions from past postgraduate entrance exam papers of top law schools (e.g., Renmin University of China, Peking University, China University of Political Science and Law, etc.). On the other hand, the book includes a "Essay and In-depth Thinking Questions" section to broaden students' academic horizons and provide significant help in mastering the methods and techniques for answering essay questions in postgraduate entrance exams.
In summary, our approach is to use a seemingly "vulgar" method—returning to an "exam-oriented education" model and conducting synchronous exercises—to achieve our grand but unpretentious goal of strengthening "specialized education." This "Exercise Collection" consists of 14 books, corresponding to 14 core law courses, and serves as a supplementary guide for the "21st Century Law Series Textbooks." It is worth mentioning that since their publication in 2000, the "21st Century Law Series Textbooks" have been widely adopted by numerous law schools and educators across the country. Some textbooks, such as Professor Wang Liming's Civil Law, have sold over 300,000 copies, and the average print sales of the 14 core course textbooks exceed 100,000 copies each. Behind these 100,000 copies are 100,000 or more readers. The immense love and support from so many readers make us feel a great sense of responsibility. Our only way to repay this is to continuously improve our service!
The "21st Century Law Series Textbooks" now have multiple sub-series, including core course textbooks, core course teaching reference books, elective course textbooks, case analysis textbooks, and bilingual textbooks, totaling over 80 titles. This "Exercise Collection" is the latest addition. With so many varieties, the goal is the same: to provide more choices for teachers and students who use our textbooks and to meet their diverse needs. We hope that this large-scale "21st Century Law Series Textbooks" can be continuously supplemented and improved, satisfying the teachers and students who use it and contributing to our country's "specialized education" in law in the way we should.