Unirule Master Thoughts Class(2014) 2nd Session Held in Beijing
Author:Unirule
Time：2014-12-23 14:14:39 Clicks:
December 13th 14th, Unirule Master Thoughts Class(2014) 2nd Session was held in Beijing. This session was joined by Professor MAO Yushi, Honorary President of Unirule, Professor HE Weifang from Peking University, and Professor SUN Liping from Tsinghua University.
December 13th, Professor HE Weifang spoke on “The Birth of a State of Rule of Law”. Professor HE firstly talked about the existing ideological dilemma of China. He thought the biggest problem of China was that there was a lack of a clear social identity for people and there was a lack of definitive values, and a lack of a prospect of development. This status led to the deadlock of the reforms, and the dilemma of the establishment of rule of law.
Professor HE then analyzed the features of the rule of law. He thought the most critical feature of a society of rule of law was that public powers were included in the legal sphere and supervised by it in a strict manner. The main task of the rule of law was to limit and contain public powers and prevent it from being abused. It depended on the internal design, management and the influence of the society to contain the public powers. It is very significant to have all the powers, including the powers of the parties, included in the laws and constitution in order to build up the modern party institution and the rule of law.
The other feature was that the laws issued should be applicable and validate in reality with binding power so that judgements could be expected according to the judicial explanations, and the common practices backed by legal cases. The third feature of a society of the rule of law was that the legal institution itself should be unified and consistent. The rights endowed by the higher-level laws should not be taken by the lower-level laws. For instance, the Solution to the Custody and Repatriation of Urban Vagrants and Beggars is against the constitution, which asked for constitutional review.
In the afternoon session, Professor HE talked about the influence of China’s ancient administrative and judicial traditions on the establishment of a society of the rule of law. He talked about the lack of civl organizations in the centralized state resulting in the atomized individuals in the society that discouraged solidarity. In addition, the obstacle imposed by the imperial examination disabled the social mobility in ancient China which further prevent classes from emerging. Therefore, it was impossible for the society to negotiate with the emperors, which led to the normal status of autocracy. Professor HE also illustrated the between “monarch-subject, and father-son”relations, and its connection with the overthrow of the Xia dynasty, and the blurriness of the judicial language in ancient China, which impressed the participants very much.
On the morning of December 14th, Professor MAO Yushi spoke on “Logics, Independent Thinking, and Objective Observation”. Professor MAO pointed out that there were two kinds of logics, one was the formal logics, the other the dialectical logic. And there’s a lack of application of the former since ancient China. He proposed the instance of HAN Yu’s essay“A Thorough-Bred Horse” and the modern mentality of “putting others before oneself” which featured logical fallacy. Both logics and objective observation were important tools to understand the world. There was only one objective world, but the subjective worlds depended on individual perceptions. Therefore, it was very important to listen to different opinions and maintain one’s own judgements and to avoid partial and incomplete understanding of the world.
