Peking University (PKU) Law School was officially inaugurated on June 26, 1999. Its precursor was the Law Department of Peking University, which was founded in the year of 1904, and therefore the institution with the longest history of modern legal education in China. In the 1952 “grand adjustment of law departments,” it was once merged into Beijing Politics and Law College. In 1954, During the “Cultural Revolution” (1966-76). PKU Law Department has developed rapidly for the past 30 years. It remains in the frontier of Chinese legal education, in terms of recruiting the most talented faculty, breaking the new grounds of research, cultivating outstanding students, and building and rebuilding China’s legal system.
Academic Programmes
Undergraduate Program
The undergraduate program is a 4 year program. Students may apply for exchange programs in United States, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Korea to broaden their views and can also choose courses in politics,
information, international relations, communication, and etc. Students may participate in a double major in economics, psychology, philosophy, art and mathematics, which provides a cross-discipline platform for
comprehensive legal professionals. In addition, the program also provides a two-year degree of law in intellectual property for students in other majors in order to make students have a systematic understanding of law and intellectual property.
Master of Jurisprudence (for students without an LLB degree)
Peking University Law School is one of the first law schools in mainland China to have the degree of Master of Jurisprudence.
The goal of the Master of Jurisprudence degree is to cultivate students with the following abilities: comprehend basic legal theories and handle relevant legal cases with inter-disciplinary knowledge, become high-level legal professionals in legislature, judicial system, administration, legal service, legal supervision and social management. The Master of Jurisprudence is a 3 year program. It combines basic theoretical instruction with specialty focus, combines courses with practice, and combines foreign exchange program with internships. It is based on research centers and advocates cross-discipline integration.
Doctor Program
Peking University Law School has Ph.D. degrees in legal theories, legal history, constitution and administrative law, criminal law, civil law, litigation law, economics law, international law and environmental law.
The goal of the Ph.D. degree is to cultivate students with following features: have overall legal knowledge structure and abilities to analyze emerging legal issues. The Ph.D. degree is a 4 year program (for Master-Doctor combined program graduate students, 3 years). Peking University strives to provide opportunities such as research programs and international exchange programs for Ph.D. students.
Law Library
The Law Library was established in 1954 with the reconstruction of the Department of Law at Peking University. At that time, the Library was known as the reference room, and it had only two staffs and held about six thousand volumes of books. In October 1997, it was renamed as the “Law Library” upon the approval at the Department Head Meeting.
The Law Library is not only a professional library with a rich collection of books and a good academic atmosphere, but also serves as the Legal Documentation and Information Center of Peking University. The library occupies a total area of 1,100 square meters with four floors, where open stacks are managed in enclosed environment. Currently, the library has a staff of 12, including four professional librarians at mid to senior levels. There is a current periodical reading room, an electronic reading room, the Chinese stacks, the foreign language stacks and a reading room with books from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The collection amounts to over 85,000 volumes of books and nearly a thousand sheets of microfiche. Recent acquisitions of the library also include CDs, video tapes and materials in various new formats. The library’s collection primarily consists of law books but also includes books on interdisciplinary subjects so that the library can provide academic, theoretical, systematic and integrated resources for the students. The Law Library is equipped with 62 computers, 3 photocopiers and 2 microfiche readers.
Contact
Peking University Law School
No.5 Yiheyuan Road,
Haidian District, Beijing
Telephone: 62751695
E-mail: lawlib@law.pku.edu.cn
