The New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance between 20 Chinese and foreign law schools was officially launched on Friday 11 December 2015 in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province. UNSW Law’s Professor Colin Picker, Associate Dean (International), attended the event and represented UNSW Law School’s membership in the alliance.

According to Professor Wenhua Shan, Dean of the Law School of Xi'an Jiaotong University and one of the founders of this alliance, the New Silk Road Alliance aims to establish a platform for the promotion of international collaboration on legal education and research and the enhancement of the rule of law. Professor Shan is also a Professor of UNSW Law.

Members of this alliance include most of the top law schools in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as other foreign universities from Asia, Europe and South America. They are the law schools of: Xi’an Jiaotong University, Renmin Univeristy, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Wuhan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Xiamen University, Nanjing University, Jilin University, Shandong University, Hong Kong University, National Taiwan Univeristy, Singapore National University, UNSW Australia, University of Helsinki, Finland, Delhi University, India, People's Friendship University, Russia, FGV University, Brazil, Seoul National University, South Korea, and National University, Kyrgyzstan.

Professor Shuguo Wang, the President of Xi'an Jiaotong University, commented that the launch of the New Silk Road Alliance would facilitate academic communications and co-operations in legal studies among the alliance member jurisdictions and the movement of legal globalisation, which is consistent with China’s ‘One Belt and One Road’ (the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road) Strategy and the aim of improving China’s legal environment and legal culture.

Professor Colin Picker commented that the program of New Silk Road Law Schools Alliance would be an important link for communications on legal topics between the most important legal systems and law organisations of the world and hoped that the Alliance would foster deeper cooperation with Chinese law schools. UNSW Law values such Chinese connections, as reflected by its recent launch of the Chinese International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Initiative. Furthermore, UNSW Law has offered to host the next event of the New Silk Road Alliance at its Sydney campus in late 2016.

Read more about the Alliance in the China Daily.

Posted Wednesday, 13th January 2016

Link：http://www.law.unsw.edu.au/news/2016/01/chinese-and-foreign-law-schools-launch-new-silk-road-alliance