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Laureates of 2019 Li Buyun Law Prize: Xu Xianming

admin / 2019-12-18 16:34:11


Professor Xu Xianming is a famous Chinese jurist, educator, reformer and legal practitioner, and he has devoted himself for the course of rule law for all his career. Professor Xu serves as the member of NPC (the National People's Congress) Standing Committee and vice chairman of Supervision and Justice Committee of NPC. Also, he is vice chairman of China Law Society, vice president of China Society for Human Rights Studies, honorary President of China Jurisprudence Research Association, and director of the Steering Committee of the Excellent Legal Talent Education Training Program of Ministry of Education.


Professor Xu started his career as a researcher and practitioner of the rule of law as early as 1979 when he was a sophomore at Jilin University's Law School. At that time, he presented a defense for a murder suspect for free. Since then, Professor Xu began his 40-year pursuit of the rule of law.


In 1996, Professor Xu published Elements of the rule of law in the journal of Chinese Journal of Law, which comprehensively analyzed a series of important and basic theoretical issues of the rule of law.


Professor Xu is one of the early experts in the field of human rights research after the reform and opening up. His systematic research on human rights has made important contributions to the theory and practice of human rights protection in China. As early as 1987, he wrote a human rights report which proposed two main conclusions: first, the communist party always cares about human rights; second, human rights are the common achievements of human civilization.


In April 1990, at the first national seminar on human rights theory in China, Professor Xu introduced the right to life systematically for the first time. Subsequently, the right to life became the primary human right put forward in the first human rights white paper of the Chinese government in 1991.


Besides the related researches, Professor Xu also engaged in many lawmaking directly or indirectly and put forward a number of bills and suggestions to improve the way of human rights protection. Especially when the constitution was amended in 2004, he played an important role in promoting the incorporation of human rights into the constitution.


As a practitioner of the promotion of the rule of law in China, Professor Xu has successively held important posts in the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of CPC, the Supreme People's Procuratorate of China and the standing committee of the National Congress. He has made great efforts to improve the digitalization of judicial and procuratorial work and promote the reform of judge/prosecutor personnel quota system. Also with his efforts, jurists, lawyers and the press get the opportunity to enter into the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of CPC, to ensure that courts can exercise its powers independently and impartially in accordance with the law.


Professor Xu also has made outstanding contributions to China's legal education. After he served as the president of China University of Political Science and Law since 2001, the university made a great progress and has become an indicator of China's legal education.


Whether as a researcher or a practitioner, Professor Xu has determined to pursuit the rule of law and human rights protection. Whether as a jurist or as an educator, Professor Xu is a role-model for us.


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