Legal contributions of Zhizhi University

Due to the legal background of President He Shizhen and Dean He Shimei of Zhizhi University, the law department of Zhizhi University was very famous in China at that time. He Shizhen graduated from the China Comparative Law School in 1921 and went to the United States to study in the same year. He received a doctorate in law from the University of Michigan. He once served as a law professor at Shanghai University and a professor of criminal procedure law at Soochow University Law School. He Shimei graduated from Soochow University Law School in Shanghai, China in the 10th year of the Republic of China (1921), and was sent to graduate school at the University of Michigan in the United States, where he received a doctorate in law. In the twelfth year of the Republic of China (1923), he returned to China and applied for positions as professor of criminal law at Soochow University Law School, professor of law at Shanghai University, and lawyer.

In the 1930s, the law course at Shanghai Zhizhi Public School lasted four years and offered a total of 40 required courses: 9 courses in the first academic year, including Introduction to Chinese Studies, British Literature, English Vocabulary and Composition, and Society Science, political science, economics, general theory of civil law, party principles, and military education; there are seven subjects in the second year, namely Constitution, Introduction to Obligations, Property Law, Roman Law, Administrative Law, General Principles of Criminal Law and Special Principles of Criminal Law; 12 subjects in the third year Courses include various creditor's rights theories, civil procedure law, criminal procedure law, international public law, land law, company law, family law, court organization law, military education, inheritance law, litigation practice and elective courses; there are 11 courses in the fourth year , which are Chinese legal history, private international law, civil procedure law II, insurance law, bankruptcy law, labor law, maritime law, penology, enforcement law, and litigation practice II. In addition, there are 7 elective courses: criminal policy, forensic science, criminology, document procedures, fingerprint science and the history of Chinese legal thought, and the history of European and American legal thought. While focusing on book learning, Zhizhi College has not neglected practical operations and has opened litigation practice courses to allow students to master legal knowledge and skills through their own practice in mock trials.

There are many famous teachers from the Law Department of Zhizhi University. They established the Zhizhi College Legal Research Association.

Most law graduates from Zhizhi University are engaged in legal work. In Shanghai's old society, the total number of lawyers who officially joined the Bar Association was about 1,300, with the largest number of graduates from Zhizhi University, Soochow University, the Faculty of Law and the School of Political Science and Law. They are also the most powerful in the bar association. Outsiders call them Soochow lawyers, Zhizhi lawyers, Legalist lawyers, and Law School lawyers.