Choose a major that can undertake social responsibility.
Six years ago, in the spring of 2002, Liu Yang was in a bad mood and was always in a daze unconsciously. At that time, he was a sophomore in Tsinghua University, but he was faced with the first important choice in his life.
Liu Yang, who has just entered Tsinghua, entered the comprehensive class of Chinese and foreign culture in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences of the school because of his excellent grades. The students studying here haven't decided their major yet. After a year, they can choose the way they want to go again.
Liu Yang always recalls the first lesson given to him by Xu Baogeng, a professor of Chinese Department when he first entered school. It was when he and his classmates came to Wang Guowei's grave and read the inscription: "It was a wonderful day for philosophers to tell the truth. The afterlife is unknown, and Mr. Wang's pen is sometimes obscure. Mr. Wang's theory may sometimes be negotiable. Only this spirit of independence and freedom has been worshipped for thousands of years. It is as long as the world, * * * with three lights. "
At that time, Liu Yang was filled with emotion: That's what learning should be like! The next year's study also made him like this cultural environment, which is quiet and simple and has nothing to do with utility. However, when the students were considering the future direction, he also had doubts about himself: "Although literary research is my hobby, is it suitable for me to take this road?"
After careful consideration, he decided to leave the Chinese Department and choose the law major for further study. In his view, although doing research is his favorite career and lifestyle, he is also willing to actively undertake social responsibilities, and law majors can find this combination. Even in the face of his hobbies and interests, he remained very calm.
Six years have passed. Not long ago, Liu Yang won a special scholarship for graduate students in Tsinghua University. Among the five winners, he is a master. Compared with the other four doctoral students who are about to graduate and have made small achievements in scientific research, his defense score is high.
Now, Liu Yang has received a notice from a well-known law school in North America, which has strengthened his choice.
"Many people have doubts, but most of them are doubts about certain objects. While questioning what happened around me, I will also question my choice. This is where I am slightly different from others. " Liu Yang said.
If you can jump out of your emotions and look at your choices from the perspective of an outsider, it is a way to avoid making mistakes. As a sophomore, this is a bit too difficult. Liu Yang did it, but he didn't want to admit that his attitude towards life was rational.
"Questioning may be my instinct. That doesn't mean I'm rational. If it was the latter, I would have been busy making money. The public international law I chose is still relatively unpopular, and there is no' money way', which is still relatively romantic. " Liu Yang said with a smile, it looks more like a literature major.
Learning justice
When meeting Liu Yang, he wore ordinary sportswear, with a sincere smile on his face, gentle speech and sincere tone, which seemed a little mature and steady.
At present, Liu Yang has published four academic papers, which has no advantage over the four doctoral rivals when they were fighting for special scholarships. However, his balanced development and excellent study and social work are his advantages in winning a special scholarship.
Since entering Tsinghua, Liu Yang has been working in the Student Union, and later served as the President of the Student Union of the Law School, and then as the Secretary of the Youth League Committee of the College. He has always benefited a lot from student work. He still remembers that when he first entered the student union, he had plenty of energy and courage to do anything. Years of experience have taught him to coordinate various relationships and turn what he wants into reality. These precious treasures have been enjoyed by him until now.
When he was a graduate student, he got a valuable opportunity to practice in the criminal court of the people's court. The initial work is nothing more than running letters, articles, leaflets, copying documents, delivering documents and moving documents, all of which are basic work.
However, he did not become negative because his work was not challenging. He believes that after a period of hard work, the judge will trust him more and give him the opportunity to get close to a more core and valuable job.
Sure enough, after working for a period of time, the judge felt that he was diligent and down-to-earth, so he was asked to read the case file and draft the marking report. Since the people's court took back the right to review the death penalty, one of the important tasks of the criminal court is to review the death penalty. It is these cases that Liu Yang contacted.
His job is to review the death penalty case file sent by the local court and then write the case report. After being submitted to the judge, the judge will refer to these reports and decide whether to send the person back for retrial or approve the death penalty in the death penalty review procedure.
This is Liu Yang's first contact with criminal case files, and those lifelike photos of corpses make him feel scared. But every day when Liu Yang goes to work, he will see the family members of the plaintiff and the defendant petitioning at the gate of the people's court. At this time, he always thinks, how would I feel if I were one of these people? Every page of those files is related to people's lives, which makes him feel a real sense of responsibility.
How to ensure the fairness and justice of marking reports? Liu Yang still adopts the way of constantly questioning things and himself. Question the authenticity of the evidence, question whether the evidence forms a complete chain of evidence, and question whether the chain of evidence is strong enough to support the defendant's judgment.
Liu Yang handled five cases during his internship in the People's Court. Although he can't disclose the results for confidentiality reasons, he is full of confidence in the fairness of the case.
Be a rule maker
Liu Yang still clearly remembers his first experience of participating in an international mock trial abroad, which was a court organized by the International Red Cross to simulate a case of the international law of armed conflict. For Liu Yang, this case is not only related to his major in public international law, but also an unforgettable experience.
He was deeply impressed by a detail at the scene of the court debate, that is, a Hong Kong court judge served as a judge for a mock trial. When it was the debater's turn to speak at HKU, the student lawyer first took off his watch and put it on the table, then put his pen in it and adjusted his clothes before he began to speak. The whole movement is calm, clear and eye-catching.
Afterwards, he realized that this was a routine action in the court training of the Law School of the University of Hong Kong. The purpose is to attract the attention of the judges so that they can concentrate on listening to their speeches.
"Court debate is an important feature of the common law system. They emphasized the important role of lawyers in court. Students have a year of special training related to this during their study. Liu Yang said: "The law education in China is a completely different scene."
As a result, they didn't get the ranking.
This experience made him think a lot. Court debate is a tradition in common law countries, but it is a strange thing in China. But since the mock trial was invented by others, we must play in this set of rules if we want to participate. But at present, the momentum of China's continuous opening-up has made it impossible for us to stay out of it, let alone escape.
At first, Liu Yang thought, "Do I want to work in this set of rules of the game?" Soon he thought about the problem from another angle. "From the perspective of international law, this is a problem faced by Chinese researchers and learners. You can't play with people forever, then you will never play. " Liu Yang said: "We can't be followers of rules, but we should be makers of rules." At present, there are very few judges from China serving in the United Nations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Judge Liu Daqun, who served in the United Nations International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, has repeatedly suggested that China people join these organizations and make their own voices, but it has not changed much. There are only one or two China people engaged in legal affairs in these organizations, which are equivalent to some small African countries.
It is for this reason that Tsinghua University began to organize its own mock trial very early. As an undergraduate, Liu Yang participated in the mock trial in Tsinghua University, and achieved good results in the competitions since then. With this contrast, Liu Yang has strengthened his belief in studying international law: he must adapt to and be familiar with their way of doing things in order to get his own things in international affairs.
Facing graduation, Liu Yang will go to the United States to continue his study and research. He said that after graduation, he must work hard in these organizations for a period of time for his inner mission.