The release of the Opinions on Strengthening Legal Education and Legal Theory Research in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions” ) is a milestone in the history of legal education since the founding of the People’ s Republic of China in 1949. Standing at a new historical starting point for exercising law-based governance on all fronts and advancing the rule of law in China, this document outlines new development goals for legal education and legal theory research in the new era from both short-term and long-term perspectives. It adheres to the guidance of XI Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and puts forward the principles of upholding and strengthening the overall leadership under the Communist Party of China, adhering to the scientific guidance of XI Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, accomplishing the core task of economic development and serving the overall interests of the country, fostering virtue through education and cultivating talent with both moral quality and legal literacy, following the objective law, and integrating the underlying tenets of Marxism with China’ s realities and the fine traditional Chinese culture, thus establishing the principles for the new development of legal education and legal theory research in the new era. It proposes to strengthen top-level design and strategic arrangements, promote the reform and improvement of the law school system, accelerate the improvement of the legal education system, and innovatively develop the legal theory research system. Therefore, a new development landscape for legal education and legal theory research in the new era has been established. The Opinions clearly stipulates the leadership system, management system, and coordination mechanism for legal education and legal theory research, and creates a new development system for legal education and legal theory research in the new era.

The Central Committee of the Community Party of China with Comrade XI Jinping at its core has made strategic thinking and top-level design for Chinese legal education in the new era, put forward a series of new concepts, ideas and strategies that are epochal, iconic, and original, and created a scientific and modernized theory of Chinese legal education in the new era. The theory on Chinese legal education for the new era, as an important part of XI Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, profoundly answers significant questions about the orientation, goal, status, relationship, management, and system of Chinese legal education in the new era, and guides us to build a leading country in legal education.

Legal education and legal theory research are on the honorable mission of cultivating high-quality rule-of-law personnel and providing theoretical support for the rule of law in China, and play an important role in advancing the law-based governance in all fields. The Opinions on Strengthening Legal Education and Legal Theory Research in the New Era (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions” ) issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the General Office of the State Council in 2023 to meet the needs of legal education and legal theory research at present and in the future further clarifies the directions of legal education and legal theory research, and carries great importance for strengthening legal education, deepening legal research, improving the cultivation quality of rule-of-law personnel, and advancing law-based governance in all fields. The Opinions also puts forward new requirements for thoroughly implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC and XI Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law, and continuously cultivating high-quality rule-of-law personnel.

To cultivate high-quality rule-of-law talents, XI Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law must be fully carried out, the spirit of the Opinions on Strengthening Law Education and Law Theory Research in the New Era must be implemented, the law teaching system must be improved, and the paths of talent cultivation must be optimized. The first is improving the ideological and political education and legal professional ethics education, teaching the ideological and political courses and legal professional ethics courses well in line with the essence of “bringing out the facts and reasons,” and doing an excellent job in ideological and political theory teaching in all courses from the perspective of all persons, the whole process, and all-around education. The second is improving the multi-level law education and teaching system and quality certification system, supporting and developing legal vocational education, consolidating undergraduate law education, boosting graduate law education, and developing professional degree education in law. The third is improving the curriculum system for law majors, accelerating the construction of courses reflecting the achievements in the practice of state governance and administration in the new era, such as the science of intra-Party regulations, the science of oversight law, and social governance jurisprudence, and so on, exploring the availability of the characteristic new course “science of field law,” and setting up diversified major-oriented modules to accommodate a large number of new courses. The fourth is improving the practical teaching and cooperative education system, adapting to the new form and requirement of “internet + education” to innovate education and teaching methods and means, strengthening the cooperation between law schools and rule-of-law work departments and legal service providers, enhancing education through work practice, and improving the in-service education system for rule-of-law talents.

Legal textbooks are the primary carrier of the disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system of law. They systematically present and reflect the development achievements of the disciplinary system, academic system, and discourse system of law, and directly determine the overall structural arrangement and priorities of law teaching. Overall, the dichotomization of legal textbooks into the sub-systems of basic law and departmental law has lagged behind the progress on socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, and the system of textbooks relying on this traditional academic division is also in need of further improvement and reform. “Law-related,” “jurisprudence-related,” and “rule-of-law-related,” the three relatively independent but closely linked sub-systems of legal textbooks can better reflect the current evolution of the rule of law system in China. China’ s legal textbook system should be improved in terms of promoting the development of the main textbooks on law, vigorously promoting the development of textbooks on emerging disciplines and inter-disciplinarity, and courageously innovating the content and form of textbooks.

Developing digital jurisprudence, strengthening the practical teaching of law, and developing a practical teaching system of digital jurisprudence in colleges and universities based on the new era and in line with the law of scientific development are major issues of reforming and developing higher legal education in contemporary China. Taking XI Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law as the fundamental guide, focusing on the global cutting-edge topic of comprehensive and profound cross-integration of digital technology and legal education, and proceeding in line with the general law of law experimental courses in colleges and universities, we discuss how to construct the experimental teaching system for digital jurisprudence courses, and put forward a set of new ideas. An experimental teaching system for digital jurisprudence courses replenishes and improves the traditional law teaching mode, and innovates the mode of law talent cultivation under the new social form and new educational environment.

The traditional legal education model based on the discipline system of “theoretical law + departmental law” overemphasizes professional subdivision, resulting not only in the separation of different disciplines from each other, but also in the narrow thinking mode, single knowledge structure, and weak practical ability of trained legal talent, who are therefore hardly adapted to the needs of the era, which are characterized as cross boundary social problems and comprehensive knowledge application. All in all, the training of high-quality interdisciplinary legal talents lags behind social reform and the practice of the rule of law. In the context of comprehensively promoting the development of the new liberal arts, developing the new liberal arts, i.e., deep cross-integration, has penetrated into the construction of the law discipline, broken through the inherent limitations of law knowledge, promoted the interdisciplinary development of law education, and helped cultivate the ability of law students to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge. The development of new law science should proceed step by step, from shallow to deep. It should follow the guidance of social needs, break down discipline barriers, innovate cross-integration mechanisms, transform and upgrade from the “small crossover” among various departmental laws within the law discipline to the “big crossover” between the law discipline and other disciplines, and transform from the innovation of research methods to the innovation of the structure of disciplines. The cultivation of inter disciplines should focus on emerging fields such as national security, artificial intelligence, and social governance.