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Law and Humanities Seminar Series: Normative Dualism: One Way to Understand Confucian Legal Philosophy

Date&Time: December 12, 2023 (Tuesday), 12:15 PM – 1:30 PM (Beijing Time)

Speaker: Xingzhong Yu (於兴中), Chair Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Macau

Moderator: Prof. Norman P. Ho, Peking University School of Transnational Law

Location: STL Building 207

Zoom Meeting ID and Passcode: 885 9827 1676 (Passcode: 671037)

Language: English

Lecture Summary: Using one or more systems of norms to positively maintain order but another system of norms to negatively punish disorder is a characteristic, if not unique, Chinese experience. This can be described as normative dualism. This dualist practice has been proven to have a long-lasting life, originating more than three thousand years ago. Normative dualism continues to influence the Chinese normative system today. This talk discusses this perennial feature of the Chinese normative system by examining its phenomenological attributes which separates “Li” from “Xing” and its more profound philosophical foundation of dialecticism that distinguishes Yin from Yang, positive from negative and morality from punishment.

Speaker Bio:Xingzhong Yu is Chair Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Macau (UM). Prior to joining UM Faculty of Law, he was the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Professor in Chinese Law at Cornell Law School (2012-2022). His academic interests include Chinese law and legal history, social theory, comparative legal philosophy, constitutional law, and intelligent technology and law. He holds an LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School, and while there was a lecturer on law, senior research fellow in East Asian Legal Studies, and visiting associate professor. He taught at the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He has held various visiting academic positions at Beijing University's Department of Law, Jilin University, Shandong University, Northwest University of Politics and Law, Columbia Law School, and the Australian National University. He was the Wang Distinguished Visiting Professor at Cornell Law School in the fall semester of 2010. He is the author of numerous articles and 6 books, includingRule of Law and Civil Orders (2006).

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