Professor of STL
HUANG Hui
北京大学国际法学院教授
黄卉
各位老师，各位同学，
Dear professors, graduates,
今天参加2018级同学和四位LLM同学的毕业典礼，心情格外复杂。因为疫情期间的防控措施，我们在教室里面对面地学习和讨论的时间大大减少了，在校园里参加学术活动和其他集体活动的机会大大减少了，到市区和郊区游玩的次数也大大减少了。
Today, I stand here with mixed feelings delivering the speech in front of the Class of 2018 and four LLM students. As a result of the epidemic prevention and control measures, we spent much less time studying and discussing face-to-face in classrooms. Opportunities for academic or other group activities on campus, and trips to urban or suburban areas have been greatly reduced.
我们这一届同学所处的特殊的校园气氛，使得每一个同学都更加依赖自己的自觉性，从而在一切方面都变得更加独立，希望你们的这一个不情不愿的所得，能够抵消平时相处时不得不从口罩周围寻找彼此特征的所失。就算所得所失打了个平手吧。但是，尽管线上上课可以看清老师的脸色，看清老师的PPT，听清老师的声音，但无论如何，都不能弥补教室里的种种互动所能传递的信息，以及对彼此言谈的补充、注释，乃至纠正，在这一点上，作为一个教师，也是一个希望理解到对方的理解的学习者，我深感不安和内疚。
The special atmosphere makes every student in this class more dependent on your self-consciousness. You become more independent in all aspects. Hopefully, this unwillingly gained skill could offset the loss of having to recognize each other behind masks. Well, I guess we can call it a draw. In online lectures, you might see professors’ faces more clearly, read professors’ PPT more clearly, and hear professors’ voice more clearly. However, it would in no way compensate for what you could have gained from classroom interactions when you complement, annotate, even correct each other’s speech. At this point, as a teacher, as well as a learner who wants to understand others’ point of view, I feel deeply upset and is devoured by guilt.
各位同学，三年来不断的核酸、绿码和行程码，不断地提醒我们没有完美的世界但有应对的方法，没有完美的人生但有改善的心情。我感到这个提示，恰好就是学习法律专业知识、从事法律职业工作的必要认识。你们就要离校，从学习基本知识转折到形成解决实际问题的本领；这会是一个更加具体的、漫无止境的摸索周期，我能够提出来和大家共勉的是，要让专研中的困难还原为连绵的刺激。
You graduate in a time where three years of constant nucleic acid tests, green codes and travel codes reminded us that there is no perfect world but a way to cope, no perfect life but a mood for improvement. I feel that this reminder is exactly what is necessary to recognize in learning legal expertise and working in the legal profession. You are about to leave school and go from learning the basics to forming the skills to solve practical problems; it will be a more concrete and endless cycle of fumble and recovery, and what I can propose to share with you is to let the difficulties in specialized research be reduced to continuous stimulation.
我们的专业选择，决定了我们必须介入是非，澄清现实的纠纷（它们或大或小，有时候鸡毛蒜皮，有时候人命关天）。人总是要打架的，所以我们不会没有饭吃，事实上我们的工作能力越强，接到的工作任务就越重。但是，请允许我先提醒大家，落到我们手上、占据我们的岁月的法律案件（或其他工作），大部分都千篇一律、毫无趣味，似乎不需要用到我们的头脑而只是反复地消耗我们的时间。对此，我能够提出来和诸位具有高超智力的同学们共勉的是，所有人都被平淡的琐事压迫和烦恼着，我们不必是例外。而你和你的当事人从琐事获得解脱，就是把重复劳动变成小而具体的自由。
Our choice of profession dictates that we must intervene in right and wrong and clarify real disputes (they can be big or small, sometimes trivial, sometimes human lives are at stake). People are going to run into problems, so we are always able to fend for ourselves. In fact, the better we are at our job, the heavier the workload we receive. But let me be the first to remind you that most of the legal cases (or other work) that fall into our hands and occupy our years are so tedious and uninteresting that they seem to consume our time repeatedly without stimulating our minds. What I can offer to all of you with superior intellects in this regard is that all people are weighed down and bothered by mundane minutiae, and we need not be the exception. And the relief you and your clients get from all the trivialness is the small but concrete freedom you have turned from repetitive labor.
同学们，我们处于行为方式变革的时代，社会交往和国际交往形成矛盾和处理矛盾的方式相应地也发生了一些变化，不管我们去到什么岗位，身处什么环节，今后都可能面临没有先例的难题。当遇到挑衅（或挑战）或者束手无策的时候，但愿你们能够想起，第一，法治是法学出身的人的第一社会原则；第二，之前世界上的法律问题都被前辈法律人解决了，而我也是一个法律人，“现在和未来的问题，让我来吧。”
We are in an era of behavioral changes, and the ways in which social and international interactions form conflicts and deal with them have changed accordingly. And no matter what jobs we have or what part of the world we are in, we will face difficult problems we have never taken on in the future. When provoked (or challenged) or at your wits’ end, may you remember, first, that the rule of law is the first social principle for those who come from a legal background; and second, that the legal problems of the world have been solved by previous generations of legal professionals, and that I am also a legal practitioner, “Let me take care of the present and future problems.”
同学们，你们就要成为社会的新鲜活力，当然也会成家立业，经历人生种种。我想来想去，比较了一下，觉得还是应该建议你们，一定一定要培养一种业余爱好。有一个专业以外的兴趣，似乎可以减少生活的枯燥，而且似乎可以避免单调的狂热和偏执。我希望我们不仅仅因为法律关系着生活而热爱生活，而是因为我们生活着，所以热爱生活。
You are poised to become the invigorating force the world is waiting for, and of course you would have all kinds of life experiences like starting a family or finding your dream job. I’ve been thinking long and hard on the one thing I want you to take away. I think that would be you must always develop a hobby. Having an interest outside of your profession seems to make life less boring, and it seems to avoid the frenzy and paranoia of monotony. I hope we don’t just love life because law is about life, but love life because we live it.
亲爱的同学们，告别之际，我代表国法的所有老师，向各位送上诚挚的、最美好的祝愿，祝愿大家经受住一切，得偿所愿。
In closing, on behalf of all STL faculty and staff, I would like to send you my sincerest and best wishes. May you persevere and triumph in life.
2022，6月28日
