Shenzhen, China
Mark Feldman
October 22, 2023
Vice President Zhang, Dean Liu, PHBS Founding Dean Hai, STL Founding Dean Lehman, Dean McConnaughay, Dean Yandle, SCIA President Liu, Justice Bureau of Shenzhen Deputy Director Cao, Party Secretary of PKUSZ Tan, Deputy Party Secretary of PKUSZ An, Secretary of Commission for Discipline Inspection of PKUSZ Qi, distinguished guests, STL colleagues, students and alumni, good morning.
Happy Sunday, and happy birthday, STL. It is an honor to provide opening remarks for today’s event, marking STL’s 15thAnniversary.
Fifteen years ago today, a few steps from where we are now gathered, STL held its Dedication Ceremony.
On that day, the bold vision that had been developed by STL’s two founders - Dean Hai Wen and Dean Jeffrey Lehman - became a reality: a law school, located in China, providing graduate level professional legal education, based on the United States model, but with a transnational orientation, to prepare the next generation of Chinese lawyers for 21stcentury legal practice without the need to study abroad at great expense.
At the outset of today’s birthday event, I would like to recognize and underscore the ambition, optimism, dedication, resourcefulness and creativity reflected in the conception and launch of this initiative by STL’s founders, Dean Hai and Dean Lehman.
I also would like to recognize and underscore the ambition, optimism, dedication, resourcefulness and creativity reflected in the decisions of the 54 law students who committed, in 2008, to a law school that the world had never seen before, both literally and figuratively.
The term “leap of faith” is often used, but for STL’s very first class of students - the students who participated in STL’s Dedication Ceremony 15 years ago today - the decision to commit to STL at its inception required nothing less.
15 years after that Dedication Ceremony, STL now has more than 1,000 alumni, many of whom are serving in leadership positions in global law firms, multinational enterprises, international organizations and government.
And STL now has more than 600 enrolled students, which, in terms of numbers, closely resembles many law school programs in the United States.
Regarding STL’s dramatic expansion, I would highlight one central factor: Dean Philip McConnaughay, who led STL over the past decade; during that time, STL’s class size nearly doubled.
In the past few years, many “transnational” Juris Master programs have been launched in China, aiming to develop foreign-related legal talents.
These recent initiatives reconfirm, of course, the value of STL’s more established program, which, from its inception, has focused on developing transnational legal talents in China.
Notwithstanding the emergence of many transnational JM programs in China, STL remains unique in three fundamental respects.
First, STL continues to offer China’s only JD program, which tracks - but also, importantly, adapts and reimagines - the US law school model.
Second, as part of that JD program, we have assembled the only multinational resident law faculty in mainland China.
Third, our JM program itself is unique; as led by Dean Mao, STL’s JM program is introducing elements into JM education that traditionally have been associated with the US law school model: Socratic teaching methods, use of case method approaches, and an interactive classroom environment.
I also would emphasize that STL’s deep commitment to engagement - in particular, what Dean Lehman has famously characterized as “sympathetic engagement with counterarguments” - should not be considered unique but can be seen, in the context of the current environment surrounding the US-China relationship, as somewhat rare.
With respect to the current US-China relationship, a far greater level of engagement would, of course, be an exceptionally positive development. Notably, at the working level of our modest institution, engagement has been, since October 2008, consistent and strong.
Through such engagement, STL can continue to strengthen China’s relationships with the world and the world’s understanding of China.
I would close on a personal note. I had not heard of STL in October 2008. But by October 2010, STL was very much on my radar. At that time, I was preparing to meet with several law schools in Washington DC as part of an annual law faculty recruitment conference that is held there.
I had just been contacted by Dean Yandle, inviting me to meet with STL at the conference.
In October 2010, I was working in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the US State Department, and I approached Harold Koh, who was then serving as the Legal Adviser, for advice regarding the law schools I would soon be meeting with. Harold Koh had spent most of his career at Yale Law School but with important periods of service in government. I showed Harold the list of law schools I would be meeting with in Washington DC. After considering the list for a few moments, Harold pointed to STL. “You should go there,” he said.
Harold knew Dean Lehman and Dean Yandle very well. Harold knew STL very well. Harold Koh was so right.
