Home > Laureates’ Speech

Randle Edwards

/ 2014-6-12 11:27:39

Members of the Selection Committee, Distinguished Guests, and Esteemed Professor Guo Daohui:

Thank you for the great honor of selecting me to receive a Li Buyun international  legal scholarship award.  I have known Li Buyun for almost thirty years. I have long respected his academic achievements, his personal integrity, and his unwavering commitment to building the rule of law and strengthening international cooperation in legal scholarship.

It has also  been my pleasure for more than forty years to engage in the study and teaching of Chinese law and Chinese legal history. It has given me particular satisfaction in recent years to serve from time to time as a visiting professor of law at Renmin University.

My study of Chinese legal history over the years has convinced me that creative and efficient public order and dispute  resolution techniques evolved in China over the millennia contributed  significantly to China's impressive cultural achievements, and are worthy of study today by Chinese and foreign scholars.

As Chairman of CLEEC for eight years (1983-1991),  Director of the Center for Chinese Legal Studies at Columbia Law School from 1981 to 2002, and Director of the foreign LL.M. Program at Columbia Law School from 1979 to 1999, I had the privilege and the pleasure to serve as mentor to hundreds of Chinese students and law professors. Perhaps some of them are in the audience for the award ceremony in Shanghai today.. Nothing has given me greater joy than to learn of their many achievements in the Chinese government, law practice, and legal education.

The many Chinese students and scholars whom I have known have made, and continue to make, valuable contributions to international legal scholarship. I applaud their efforts and achievements, and look forward to continued cooperation with all of them.

I wish I could personally be there with you all. Instead, I will take advantage of modern telecommunications to share with you this message.

Thank you again for this great honor.

                                                                                                           Randle Edwards

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