Law Program
Yale-China's forte has long been our ability to deliver high quality, effective programs designed to meet specific and emerging needs on the ground in China. One such example is the Yale-China Law Fellows Program, which was developed in response to official and grassroots efforts to strengthen the rule of law in China. These efforts have precipitated new challenges, chief among them the need to bolster legal education so that judges and lawyers are equipped to navigate this new legal landscape. Yale-China's law program has responded to this challenge by sending young U.S.-trained attorneys to China for one year to teach courses on U.S. and international legal practices and standards. We have also helped to pioneer the field of clinical legal education in China, which provides one of the best avenues through which Chinese law schools can begin to foster communities of students and teachers prepared to use the law to serve the public interest.
Since 2000, Yale-China has appointed nine early-career U.S. lawyers as Yale-China Law Fellows, seven of whom taught in China for one academic year, and two of whom taught for longer periods. These Fellows were integrated into the educational programs of seven of China’s major law schools: Tsinghua University, Beijing; Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou; Wuhan University and South-Central University of Politics and Law, Wuhan; Northwest University of Politics and Law, Xi’an; Yunnan University, Kunming; and Hunan University, Changsha.
Program Goals and Objectives
To foster understanding and cooperation involving students and faculty members of the Chinese host law schools and of U.S. law schools through a variety of formal and informal contacts inside and outside the classroom;
To assist Chinese law students and faculty in understanding international and U.S. laws, legal practices and standards, and law pedagogy, including clinical legal practices and pedagogy; and,
To provide select American lawyers with an opportunity to learn about Chinese society and the Chinese legal system and who will contribute to understanding and exchange between the U.S. and Chinese legal communities both during and following the Fellowship experience.
Law Fellows’ Teaching and Clinical Legal Education Activities
Each Fellow’s assignments are divided between teaching courses on American and international legal topics and co-teaching in Chinese clinical legal education programs. Fellows’ roles thus have both a program-building as well as an immediate educational purpose. Using primarily English and some Chinese in the classroom, previous Fellows have taught courses in environmental law, administrative law, corporate law, internet law, civil rights law, intellectual property rights, and refugee law. Meanwhile, the clinical legal education courses they co-teach with Chinese colleagues and the guidance they provide to student legal aid programs benefit not only the students, but also their clients, and strengthen the overall clinical legal education program. Fellows generally teach around six to eight hours per week in a classroom setting to allow ample time for their involvement in clinical activities. The clinics where Fellows serve have undertaken cases protecting consumer, labor and civil rights, as well as cases in criminal defense, environmental, and tort law.
Yale-China's law program has been made possible with the generous support of the Chung Kin Kwok Education Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Lingnan Foundation, the U.S.-China Legal Cooperation Fund, the U.S. Embassy Rule of Law Small Grants Program, and the members of the Yale-China Association, along with substantial in-kind contributions from our Chinese partners.
