Mitsuishi Hogakuen
The following article is from the Tao Fang Tu Shuo, written by Funto Law
Dao Fang Tu said.
Be an interesting and informative legal professional
One
The origin and significance of this article
Law is a humanities and social science composed of many basic and interdisciplinary departments, involving countless fields of law. It is unrealistic for law learners and practitioners to devote their limited energies to a comprehensive understanding of all areas of law outside of their own field. Law students in colleges and universities usually have their own interests and preferences, and many law schools will set up some specific law majors in their own specialties for law students to choose from. Judges and judges' assistants in the people's courts need to study certain specific areas of law according to their professional needs, and with the extension of their working years, they will constantly face the situation of being transferred to other departments within the court, and with it, new types of cases; Lawyers in law firms and in-house counsel in enterprises often need to come into contact with unfamiliar areas of law due to changes in the needs of clients or employers, and even lawyers and in-house counsel with business expertise will inevitably need to face objective needs from other legal fields. In many cases, we have to face the situation of having to start from scratch in a comprehensive and unfamiliar area of law ourselves. Therefore, how to comprehensively learn an unfamiliar field of law has become a practical challenge for many lawyers.
Sometimes, for the occasional need for coursework or practice, we usually choose to look through relevant professional works, search for relevant judicial cases, etc. For example, a legal counsel who has been working in a construction engineering company for a long time is of course his specialty, but in the face of the sudden demand for patent law in the company's business department, such a legal counsel is unlikely to learn the entire legal field of patent law from scratch, but will prepare accordingly according to actual needs.
Increasingly, however, we need to fully understand and even master a new area of law for a variety of reasons. But different people have different approaches to how to achieve this.
Due to a number of subjective and objective reasons, the areas of law that I have studied, researched and practiced in depth cover different legal departments. Since I started to study law systematically as an undergraduate, I have studied maritime law, Western legal thought, criminal law, construction law, real estate law, intellectual property law, data law and artificial intelligence law in a comprehensive and in-depth manner. I've always been strict with myself, whether it's for higher education or to practice law, so every time I come across a new area of law, I want to do my best to be better. With the passage of time, the once solid accumulation of knowledge was inevitably returned to Bai Ju, but the learning methods in the new legal field were inadvertently retained, so now I try to do an overall review and combing, hoping to help colleagues with similar learning needs.
Two
Ideas
(1) Discover the law
In China, almost all areas of law have their roots in statutory law. So it's important to determine what laws are in the area of law that we're going to study.
For different areas of law, the logic of statutory law formulation is different. Taking maritime law as an example, it is clearly different from international trade law because it is a law that regulates the relationship between maritime transportation and ships. Most of the lawyers and judges I spoke with confused maritime law with international trade law when they discussed it with me. The law of maritime law is based on the different situations of the carriage of goods by sea or in the maritime field, so it has a clear situational character.
First of all, based on the Maritime Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Maritime Law"), which has been formulated in mainland China for more than 30 years, the main adjustment objects and applicable situations of the Maritime Law can be directly glimpsed through the chapters therein. Next, although other unpopular laws are not within the scope of adjustment in the Maritime Law, we can also realize that we may also encounter maritime law issues after a general glance at the Maritime Law, such as laws related to ports, laws related to ships and crews, laws related to inland water transport, or laws related to freight forwarding, and if these laws are not formulated by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, they can basically be judged to have been formulated by the State Council or the Ministry of Transport, and there are a few important local regulations that are also worth noting. Finally, in view of the international and practical nature of maritime law, there are bound to be many international conventions and judicial interpretations corresponding to different situations in the field of maritime law. With such a set of ideas, the main laws in the field of maritime law can be glimpsed.
Different from the situational nature of maritime law, the outstanding feature of construction project law lies in its link, which is obviously determined by the process of construction projects. Construction projects usually need to go through the investment decision-making stage, the engineering survey stage, the engineering design stage, the procurement and construction stage, the project supervision stage, and the delivery stage, and the relationship between them is either chronological, or intersecting or inclusive. Therefore, there are countless corresponding laws, regulations, rules and local rules and regulations in different links.
Of course, it can be difficult for those who are not familiar with the relevant area of law to determine what the legal provisions of a new area of law will look like at the outset. However, any field of law has its subject to adjustment. Therefore, having a preliminary understanding of the object of adjustment of the legal department should take precedence over the understanding of the statutory law. Adoption of the main laws in this area of law (here first and foremost laws in the narrow sense, i.e., laws enacted by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee; If there is no law at this level in this field, the characteristics of legislation in this field of law can be roughly inferred by looking at the chapters and contents of administrative regulations or departmental rules. For example, if we need to understand the situation of Chinese artificial intelligence law, we need to have a general understanding of what artificial intelligence is. Earlier this year, when I spoke with a professor in charge of intellectual property law at the University of Chicago Law School, she argued that not all technologies can be relied upon by AI, and that the term "AI" is being overused and exaggerated in practice. In China, there is no unified understanding of this issue. The MIT Technology Review published a classic article in July that commented on the question of what artificial intelligence is.
(https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/07/10/1094475/what-is-artificial-intelligence-ai-definitive-gu) Although we usually do not have access to such information, we can still clarify a general framework through perceptual understanding. For example, artificial intelligence inevitably involves the collection of information, of which the main form of information is data, so the mainland's Personal Information Protection Law and Data Security Law are of course inseparable from the artificial intelligence legal system. As artificial intelligence is currently the hottest technology and industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of the People's Republic of China, the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee, the National Standardization Administration and other national ministries and relevant units will inevitably issue regulations and other documents to regulate artificial intelligence. Second, for the regulation of artificial intelligence, economically developed regions will inevitably take the lead. By searching for legislative and policy documents in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places, you will find relevant regulations on the artificial intelligence industry. In addition, overseas AI-related legislation can also be used as a reference. This is also my personal experience of getting involved in domestic AI laws from scratch.
(2) Understand the implementation and application of the law
After understanding what laws are available in an unfamiliar area of law, in order to continue to understand this field of law, it is necessary to understand the administrative enforcement and judicial application of relevant laws. When we are completely ignorant of a legal field, in addition to consulting cases according to actual needs, we should also extensively read typical cases of administrative law enforcement and judicial adjudication in this field.
At present, the mainland has formed a mature system for the release of typical cases. On the administrative side, they regularly release typical cases of law enforcement, for example, the State Administration for Market Regulation will release typical cases of special anti-monopoly enforcement actions in different fields, and the State Intellectual Property Office will release typical cases of intellectual property registration in different fields. In addition, local people's governments will also release relevant typical cases of administrative law enforcement. On the judicial side, they regularly publish typical judicial cases, such as the Supreme People's Court, which publishes typical anti-monopoly cases and typical intellectual property cases. People's courts and procuratorates at all levels will also release relevant typical judicial cases. Needless to say, the importance of Guiding Cases, Gazette Cases, and the People's Court's Case Database, the "Understanding and Application" series of various judicial interpretations is also a powerful tool for in-depth understanding of relevant judicial interpretations.
At the same time, it should be noted that some organizations and groups will also publish typical cases, such as the Case Law Research Society of the China Law Society and other departmental law research groups.
In addition, when various laws and judicial interpretations are issued, the issuing authority will hold a press conference, and will form a written record of the press conference and answer questions from reporters. In many cases, the understanding of the relevant laws is hidden in these words, which directly reflect the background and purpose of the formulation of the relevant provisions of the law, but they are often ignored by practitioners in practice.
The minutes of the professional judges' meetings of the Supreme People's Court are also extremely important guidelines, and in practice, a large number of meeting minutes are directly cited by the people's courts for reasoning.
Three
method
(1) Select the books to refer to
01. Why choose a book?
Starting from unfamiliarity with a new field of law, reading a systematic book will help learners get more results with half the effort, especially to help learners form a systematic understanding of the field of law, rather than only knowing a part of the legal provisions. At the same time, a good system book will introduce the practical and theoretical background of the relevant industry.
02. What kind of books do you choose?
In the vast majority of legal fields, there are already recognized classic systematic books. This includes both academic and practical works. The specific type of book to choose depends on the learner's needs. However, it should be pointed out that in many very practical legal fields, the function of good practical works has far exceeded that of academic works, because the development of these legal fields is almost driven by a large number of legal practices, while the legal provisions themselves are relatively simple. For example, in the field of labor law, simply reading the law can hardly meet any judicial practice needs, and in this case, some practical books represented by Judge Wang Linqing's Interpretation of Labor Dispute Adjudication Ideas and Norms (Third Edition) have become the primary reference for those who systematically study labor law. Similarly, in the construction project law, Judge Zhou Liming's "Deconstruction and Reshaping: Thinking and Methods of Adjudicating Construction Contract Disputes (Second Edition)" is also one of the main reference books for engineering law practitioners. Therefore, when there is no special need, there is no need to dwell on academic or practical works, but it is necessary to consult the opinions of people in the industry and choose books with certain authority and typicality.
03. How to choose a book?
There are different books on law and legal practice on the market, and our energy for reading is very precious, so we must not waste it on inappropriate books.
When choosing books, I use the "Douban" app most often. Basically, every book released can be found on "Douban" for ratings. Douban users, especially law users, usually have strict requirements for books, so the ratings and reviews above are highly credible. Sometimes, when a new book or a particularly unpopular book is not rated because the number of reviews is too small, I will check the few reviews at the bottom and ask the reviewer how they feel about the book in a private message if necessary.
Depending on your specific needs, you can choose a book that is more theoretical or more practical. The key is to get advice from industry insiders. When I'm still not sure which book to choose, I will search for certain keywords in WeChat's "Subscription Account Message" to find articles that recommend books, and the authority of the book can be judged by the number of articles recommending the same book and the subject of the official account. After initially determining the books you might choose, it is highly recommended to search for the purchase link of the book on Taobao and click to view the table of contents of the book. Whether a book is good or not can be screened by its table of contents to a large extent, and we can also avoid becoming a big injustice in buying books because of the attraction of the title; At the same time, it is necessary to understand the background of the author.
In general, it is to determine whether to read a book or not by word of mouth, table of contents, and author.
(2) Read professional articles
Whether it is academic research or practical work, we all need to read professional articles. Of course, when we first came into contact with an unfamiliar field of law, we basically read professional articles written by practitioners.
Now WeChat subscription account has become the most important platform for legal practice articles, and it is also the easiest platform for us to contact. Many databases will also enter professional articles, but in terms of quantity, quality, and accessibility, they are not better than WeChat subscription account articles. Therefore, by using a good WeChat subscription account, you can open up the way to read professional articles.
In WeChat's "Subscription Account Message" page, there is a magnifying glass logo in the upper right corner, and you can enter keywords to search for subscription account articles after clicking. In the process of searching and reading articles, I will pay attention to valuable professional subscription accounts, which will regularly publish different professional articles such as case interpretation, interpretation of new regulations, and analysis of law application. For the new legal field we want to touch, we can also search for the professional public account in this field in WeChat and pay attention to it for a long time.
The vast majority of these Official Accounts are created and operated by law firms, relevant lawyers, people's courts, or leading enterprises in specific industries. And within the official account, you can also pay attention to professional articles in a specific field by following the "collection" of articles in it. WeChat subscription accounts that are operated in a more organized manner will attach a collection of the word "#xxxxx" at the bottom of each article, and you can "subscribe" to the "collection" after clicking on it.
The screenshot shows the steps to view the Collection
I myself have many years of experience in running my own WeChat subscription accounts, and I have also paid attention to a number of excellent public accounts, especially the WeChat subscription accounts of some high-quality law firms or lawyer teams. These articles will be checked by the team leader or the partner of the law firm, and many of the articles are even written by the partners themselves, which is extremely valuable in today's impetuous times. For many law firms, WeChat subscription accounts are just a platform for self-promotion, and these law firms only publish news and honors and personnel changes on their subscription accounts, and do not encourage lawyers to write and publish a large number of high-quality articles combining theory and practice based on their rich practice experience; At the same time, this situation is also limited by the fact that the vast majority of law firms in China are small and medium-sized law firms, and lack the objective conditions to conduct legal research and thinking and form articles and works. Therefore, it is rare for those who have been publishing professional articles for many years (which are usually of high real-time) and maintain a high quality of the articles. So which law firms' WeChat subscription account articles have a lot of high-quality dry goods that legal people can learn from? I can sort out and share with you here, listing some of the law firm subscription accounts that I have been reading for many years that have been updated frequently (at least three professional articles have been published within ten days, or at least three of the ten articles in a row are professional articles) and have a high level of professionalism.
King & Wood Mallesons Research Institute, Zhong Lun Vision, JunHe Law Review, Haiwen Law Offices, Jingtian & Gongcheng Law Offices, Fangda Law Offices, Global Law Office, Commerce & Finance Law Offices, Tiantong Litigation Circle, Han Kun Law Offices, Hyland Law Review, Zhong Lun W&D Law Firm, Zhong Lun W&D Law Firm Shanghai Branch, DHH Research Institute, AllBright Law Offices, Tahota Lawyers, Jincheng Tongda, Tian Yuan Lawyers, Longan Law Offices, Merits & Tree Law Offices, Dentons, Lantai Law Firm, Beijing Chance Bridge Law Firm, Jiawei Law Firm, Cai'an Law Firm, Grandall Law Firm, DeHeng Law Firm, Anli Lawyer, Xinghan Micro Law Garden, City Development Lawyer, Hairun Tianrui, Xieli Legal News, V&T Law Firm, Anjie Broad & Bright, Lifang Law Firm, Yunting Law Firm, Qiankun Law Firm, Zhongjian Law Firm, Kyoto Lawyer, Duan and Duan Jinjie Lawyers, Huiye Legal Observer, Hansheng Lawyers, Haihua Yongtai Law Firm, Boss & Young Law Firm, China Commercial Law Firm, Guanghe Lawyer, Hepu Ruicheng Law Firm, Zhuo Jian Law Firm, Ze Bar, Tianci Law Firm, Jingheng Lawyer, Fade Dongheng Lawyer, Shengdian Law Firm, Jiangsu Zhibang Law Firm, Baijun Shuo, Kunyuan Hengtai Law Firm, Tiandiren Law Firm, Tianheng United Law Firm, Qiancheng Lawyer, Shen Tong Lawyer, Digital Law Firm, Yongjiaxin Law Firm, Jiaxuan Lawyer, Liuhe Law Firm, Gu Yu Law Firm, Shuren Lawyer, Kyoto Criminal Defense Research Center, Weiheng Criminal Defense Circle, Shangquan Criminal Defense, Jing Yulin Law Firm, Song Law Firm, Jianda Field, Real Estate and Engineering Law Observation, Beijing Jiali Law Firm, Jia & Jia Law Firm, Family Law Garden, Jiangyu Law Garden, Wenkang Legal Observation, Shuren Mining Lawyer, Zeliang Insurance Denial Division, Liu Shen Law Firm, Longan Intellectual Property Property, Lijiu Intellectual Property, Wanhuida Intellectual Property, Daofang Diagram, Intellectual Property Guancheng, Intellectual Property Criminal Case He Guoming, Sunshine Times Legal Observation, Ming Tax, Huashui, TA Entertainment Law, Gridsum Legal Practice, Jinghai Law Firm, International Trade and Shipping Law Review, Legal Practice of the Business Committee, Internet Law Practice Circle, ACG Law Practice, Financial Legal Practitioner......
In addition to these, the WeChat subscription accounts of a large number of people's courts, people's procuratorates, and arbitration commissions, represented by "Zhizheng Research", are also a good channel for learning at hand.
In terms of exposure to a new field of law, taking the study of the new "Company Law" as an example, in January this year, I posted a WeChat circle of friends, briefly explaining my method of learning the new "Company Law", which resonated with many colleagues, including a few friends in the court, who told me that this way of learning is much more convenient than their participation in training and reading books on their own.
The screenshot is for my circle of friends
Four
epilogue
In this way, comprehensively studying the ideas and methods of an unfamiliar legal field means exhausting all means to learn it, not only to be familiar with its overall picture but also to experience its bones and flesh, to grasp its relevant legal provisions and policies, and to be familiar with the attitudes of law enforcers and judicial personnel towards some of its typical problems, and to try to understand the industries and industries behind it. In this article, I have only summarized my own learning experience over the years, but everything remains the same, and if you have other ways to learn more effectively and comprehensively about an unfamiliar area of law, you can certainly not stick to this article.
We hope this article will be helpful to you who are interested in getting involved in a new area of law, whether you are a student preparing for a law degree or a legal practitioner who is preparing to cross careers.
-End -
The full text is reprinted from the WeChat public account of "Guangshi Law Garden".