1.Discipline Basis
Approved by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council in 2006, the School of Law became one of the first ten law schools that could grant a doctorate in law in the country. The discipline of law has been awarded honors such as “Provincial First-class Key Discipline” and “Provincial First-class Key Discipline base for a National Key Discipline” (cultivation). In particular, the jurisprudence discipline has been recognized as a national level “National Key Discipline” (cultivation). The school also was the first postdoctoral program in law set up in Jiangsu Province.During its development, some fields have gained a good academic reputation and social influence at home and abroad. Among them, the fields of Marxist jurisprudence, modernization of the rule of law, research on the development of regional rule of law, judicial system research, and civil procedure law are in a leading position and exert extensive academic influence. Criminal law, administrative litigation law, intellectual property law and other fields enjoy a good reputation nationally.In 2011 and 2014, the law school was awarded “A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions” (PAPD). In 2016, Chinese Legal Modernization Studieswas founded becoming the only journal in Jiangsu Province. After years of development, the School of Lawhas improved greatly and the discipline of law and J.M. entered level B+ and A- of the China Discipline Ranking (CDR)respectivelyin 2017.
2.Team Building
The faculty includes29 professors, 30 associate professors,23 doctoral supervisors and a group of promising young lecturers.Among them, Professor Pixiang Gong won the honorary title of “The National Ten Outstanding Young Jurists”, “National Level Outstanding Contributions Award to Young and Middle-aged Experts” and “The Excellent Educator of Jiangsu Province”. Professor Hao Li, a “Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions in 2006” award recipient,is a deputy to the 10th People’s Congress and a senior vice-chairman at the Civil Procedure Law Institute. Professor Jinwen Xia won the fourth National College “Distinguished Teacher” and the “Outstanding Contribution Award” for a333 Project in Jiangsu. Additionally, nine professors have won the “Jiangsu Ten Outstanding Young Jurists” honorary title, three of our professorshave been selected as a “Young academic leader of the Qinglan Project”, four of our faculty were awarded “second level talent for the 333 Project in Jiangsu province and another five, “third level talent for the 333 project in Jiangsu Province.”
3.Talent Cultivation
Remarkable achievements in talent cultivation have been made. The School of Law is one of the bases of the “Excellent Legal Talents Cultivation Plan” in the first term in China as well as the only one “High Quality Discipline” in law in Jiangsu. In addition to J. M. (Juris Master), the school enrolls doctoral students in the fields of Legal Theory, Legal History, Constitution and Administrative Law, Civil and Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Litigation Law, Economic Law and International Law.A multi-level and high-quality talent cultivation pattern has been formed, with a number of alumni achieving outstanding achievements in the forefront of theoretical research and legal practice.
4.Scientific Research
Since 2014, the School of Law hasfaculty that have been awarded many projects, includingtwo National Social Science Fund Projects, 4 key projects, and15 general projects and won 2 first prizes, 8 second prizes and 5 third prizesof the Jiangsu Philosophy and Social Science Research award. The four volumes of the General History of Marxist Legal Thought were published, which won the 4th China Publishing Government Award.127 academic papershave been published with 18 of them in top journals like Chinese Journal of Law and China Legal Science.
5.International Exchange and Cooperation
International cooperation and exchanges have yielded noteworthy results. Since 2003, the School of Law has cooperated with The University of Maryland (USA) for its Criminal Justice Program. It has also conducted exchange-student programs with universities around the world, such as Hokkaido University (Japan), Toin University of Yokohama (Japan), Swansea University (UK), Kazan Federal University (Russian) etc. Also, cooperation and exchange mechanisms are being established with the University of Arizona (USA), University of Washington (USA), and Comenius University (Bratislava). The number of both students and teachers visiting overseas and studying abroad and international students studying in this school has greatly increased.
6.Social Service
The School of Law also makes contributions to social service, for example, in 2015, the Institute for Chinese Legal Modernization Studies was established supported by the school, and it is the only think tank involving law in Jiangsu. Additionally, the law school is the founder of the Collaborative Innovation Center on Regional Rule-of-law Development in Jiangsu. These social serviceand research platforms provide excellent resources and a solid foundation for the improvement of the level of that law can provide and an upgrade of the quality of its social service to the community.