Recently, Distinguished Scholar in Residence Susan Finder of the Peking University School of Transnational Law (STL) delivered a series of academic lectures on the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China and its role in the development of foreign-related rule of law. Through these events, Professor Finder deepened international and domestic audiences’ understanding of China’s judicial system and its global engagement.
Professor Finder speaks at Max Planck Law
On September 25, Professor Finder gave an online lecture hosted by the Max Planck Law Initiative: China, Law, and Society on “China’s Supreme People’s Court: Understanding What It Does: Foreign-Related Matters” https://law.mpg.de/event/chinas-supreme-peoples-court-understanding-what-it-does/. Sandra Michelle Röseler, researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory chaired the lecture. Professor Finder’s lecture was attended by scholars in at least three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. She discussed the SPC as a multi-functional apex court, focusing on its foreign-related work, providing many examples, some from her personal experience. Her lecture was followed by a lively question and answer session. One of the attendees remarked that Professor Finder’s presentation placed internal insights into an objective framework.
Professor Finder Speaks at Jilin University Law School
Although foreign-related commercial and maritime work had previously been considered niche work at the SPC, it has grown in importance in the Xi Jinping New Era. In contrast to other apex courts, the SPC has functions additional to deciding cases, but those are in some way related to its case hearing function. She explained that in support of the development of foreign-related rule of law, it primarily relies on six functions: guiding the lower courts through creating judicial policy, especially in the form of documents; supporting legislation; hearing and selecting cases; cooperating and central and state institutions; judicial administration; and judicial foreign policy. She noted that the non-case hearing functions of the SPC are not new. Professor Finder engaged in a lively discussion during the question-and-answer period with Dean He and other Jilin University Law School professors as well as undergraduate and graduate students on a wide range of topics, including how to better prepare oneself to be a “foreign-related legal talent.” Dean He commented that before Professor Finder “came to deliver such a speech, there was no one to provide systematic information on the function of the People’s Supreme Court on foreign-related rule of law.”
