In June 1926, the University established the Section of Law, under which there were three Departments, i.e., the Law Department, the Politics Department and the Economics Department. In February 1930, all the Sections of the University were converted to Colleges, and the Section of Law was consequently renamed as Law School. Having experienced several adjustments, the present Law School is organized on the basis of the original Law Department.
Over the years since its re-opening in 1979, the Law School has attracted a pool of brilliant young and middle-aged scholars and teachers, which constitutes a strong, well-structured and everlasting teaching and research force. Presently, there are 61 full-time teachers in the Law School, including 18 professors and 19 associate professors. Particularly, two professors have been respectively selected into the National “Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talent Project” (the first and the second levels) and the “Trans-Century Talents Training Program” of the Ministry of Education.
Bearing in mind the University’s Motto of “Pursue Excellence, Strive for Perfection”, centering on talents cultivation, and following the goal of academic prosperity, the Law School has developed its own characteristics in disciplinary construction. At present, the School owns one postdoctoral program and two LL.D. programs, i.e., International Law and Civil & Commercial Law; it also owns six LL.M programs and one program of Juris Master (JM), among which International Law has been approved as the National Key Discipline and Civil & Commercial Law the Key Discipline of Fujian Province. The Projects of “Studies on International Economic Law and the Law of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao” and “Studies on International Economic Law and Oceans Law” have successively been approved as key construction items of the National 211 Project.
Presently, the School has 7 teaching & research sections: jurisprudence, constitution & administrative law, civil & commercial law, criminal law, economic law, procedural law and international law. In addition, the Law School has established the International Economic Law Institute, the Civil & Commercial Law Institute, the Roman Law Institute and the Center for Oceans Policy and Law, as well as the Center for JM Education and the Teaching & Experiment Center. The School has also published its own academic journals edited by several famous professors, i.e., Xiamen University Law Review, Journal of International Economic Law and Roman Law and Modern Civil Law, which have all received common recognition from the academia of China.
The Law School owns very good teaching facilities. The whole School occupies more than 10,000 square metres, among which 8,235 square metres are for capital construction of the buildings. The School owns an office building, two teaching buildings, multi-media classrooms and standardized case-study classrooms. Xiamen University Library not only owns an abundant collection of legal books and materials, but also introduced and developed some important databases of electronic journals (including LEXIS-NEXIS). In 1998, the University has specifically set up a law library as a branch of the Xiamen University Library, which has also been approved to be a UN depository library.
The Law School of Xiamen University was among the colleges in China that first began the teaching and research of International Economic Law. Over more than 20 years’ development, the comprehensive level of the discipline of International Economic Law has come to rank among the top in China. Particularly, in the fields of IEL basic theories, international investment law, international economic treaties and international economic organizations, international tax law and international economic disputes settlement, a large number of academic achievements have been developed with considerable influence both at home and abroad.
The Law School also started its construction of Civil & Commercial Law at an early stage, with its research scope covering the main fields of civil and commercial law. Based on the theories of civil and commercial law and following the practice of China’s reform & opening and of the construction of market economy, it has developed its own characteristic research directions. Outstanding achievements have been developed in the fields of Civil Code and Roman Law, part of which is in the leading position in China.