In 1981, Ye Qing stepped into the door of Huazheng School, from student to principal, it has been forty years. These four decades coincide with reform and opening up, as well as with China's rule of law construction.
Along the way, Ye Qing galloped on the road of legal research, and also enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way. In his eyes, legal people are the future of the rule of law, and the cause of building a rule of law China is the greatest cause that all legal people have devoted their lives to pursuing.
Ye Qing
Born in 1963 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, professor, doctor of law. He is currently the deputy secretary of the party committee and president of East China University of Political Science and Law, a member of the Standing Committee of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, the vice president of the China Criminal Procedure Law Research Association, the vice president of the Shanghai Law Society, and the vice chairman of the Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences. His main research areas are criminal procedure law, litigation evidence law, and Chinese and foreign judicial systems.
In 1937, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region High Court was formally established, at a critical moment when the Chinese nation was desperately surviving.
A sudden and big case shocked the whole country——— and the young and heroic combat hero Huang Kegong failed to propose marriage, and shot and killed Liu Qian, a young woman who came to Yan'an to join the anti-Japanese resistance. The new presiding judge, Lei Jingtian, was commissioned to try the case.
On the one hand, it is the comrade-in-arms of life and death, and on the other hand, it is the original intention of the legal system that was born with difficulties. Is it to let the heroes of the battle return to the battlefield and pay off the merits, or to severely punish and reshape justice according to the law? Standing before the ideal of the rule of law, Lei Jingtian made a choice that every Chinese legal person should remember.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party, Huazheng teachers and students put the legend of the old principal Lei Jingtian on the stage. After watching "Lei Jingtian", when talking about Lei Jingtian, Ye Qing was full of more than just a principal's high respect for a senior principal.
In the face of party discipline and state law,
No one can be treated differently
Shangguan News: When did you first hear about Lei Jingtian's story, and what was your impression at that time?
Ye Qing: The first time I heard the three words "Lei Jingtian" was in the class of "History of the Chinese Legal System" in my freshman year. At that time, there was a special chapter in the textbook of "History of China's Legal System" on "the legal system in the base areas", and the story of Lei Jingtian was in this chapter.
Now, many people will roughly think that the party emphasizes that governing the party and the army according to law is a matter after the establishment of the republic, and even think that it is a matter of the moment. In fact, the Communist Party of China governed the party and the army according to law from the Yan'an period, when there was a concept called "governing the border region according to law." The "border region government" referred to here refers specifically to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
The overall space of the stage of the drama "Lei Jingtian" reproduces the style of the Loess Plateau in Yan'an and the old appearance of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Higher Border District Court. Profile picture
Between 1937 and 1949, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was the revolutionary base area of the Chinese Communist Party. In the revolutionary base areas, the Kuomintang government is the object of overthrow, and naturally the laws of the Kuomintang cannot be applied. So, where do the laws of the base area come from? In figurative terms, it is really "growing out of the land." In the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the party attaches great importance to the use of legal weapons to safeguard the rights of the common people, and has also changed the situation of "unpeatable" in the base areas through the establishment of high courts and the intensification of the construction of legal system texts.
In the base areas at that time, the law popularization brigade often went to the fields to stage live newspaper dramas, publicizing and advocating breaking the old traditions and advocating equality between men and women. However, it is in this context that a Red Army combat hero who has made many military achievements actually shot the other party to death because of the failure of the marriage proposal, and his social influence is not insignificant. Ordinary people are watching: what the Communist Party is prepared to do with this "fighting hero".
When I first heard about this story, I was very young and had no life experience, and I was deeply impressed by two points. One point is that Lei Jingtian does not favor personal feelings, adheres to principles, and stresses party spirit. Another point was that the High Court of the Border Region at that time showed no mercy to those who violated the law, violated party discipline, and took people's lives.
It was not until later, when I had more life experience and became a leading cadre myself, that I gradually understood the far-reaching significance of this case and realized why Lei Jingtian's choice was worthy of admiration. His story deserves to be remembered by every Chinese legal person.
Shangguan News: Do you think Lei Jingtian not only made the right choice, but also set an example for later legal people?
Ye Qing: Yes. On the issue of how to punish Huang Kegong, there are differences among the cadres and masses in the border areas on whether to impose capital punishment. Huang Kegong himself even wrote to the Border Region High Court and Chairman Mao, asking "forgive me for committing a crime for a while, and leave me with a life, so that I can do the last bit of loyalty to the party in the future."
Lei Jingtian was not without entanglement and pain. Huang Kegong was a comrade-in-arms who walked through the meadows and climbed the snowy mountains with him, and was a friend of life and death. But after much deliberation, Lei Jingtian, who was the presiding judge of the case, wrote in a letter to Chairman Mao that Huang Kegong "committed a grave crime that cannot be forgiven, and as a Communist Party member and a cadre of the Red Army, he has such a despicable, cruel, and behavior that has lost the party's position, lost his revolutionary position, and lost his human position, and if he is pardoned, he cannot educate the party, the Red Army, the revolutionaries, and he does not educate an ordinary person." "Therefore, the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission had to sentence him to capital punishment on the basis of his criminal deeds and the discipline of the Party and the Red Army."
Chairman Mao supported Lei Jingtian's idea in his reply: "It is precisely because Huang Kegong is different from an ordinary person, precisely because he has been a Communist Party member for many years and a Red Army for many years, so it is impossible not to do so. The Communist Party and the Red Army cannot but enforce stricter discipline on their own Members and members of the Red Army than on the common people. ”
As legal people, we face a problem all our lives, that is, how to realize the unity of love, reason and law, and realize the unity of political, social and legal effects. The biggest problem lei Jingtian faced at that time was not "unable to rely on", but how to enforce the law impartially and reshape the discipline and social justice of the Red Army while severely punishing the murderer according to law.
Lei Jingtian's actions and Chairman Mao's reply made posterity firm in one thing: In the face of party discipline and state law, no one can be treated differently. If it is leading cadres who violate the law, they should be punished more severely.
In 1939, Lei Jingtian put forward the "sixteen characters" policy for trial work in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border District High Court and set an example and strictly implemented it. Profile picture
"It is the duty of the Communists to lift the people above their heads,
Let your children and grandchildren live in the sun."
Shangguan News: Some people will ask, if leading cadres make mistakes, is it not enough to "share the crime with the common people"? Why the punishment?
Ye Qing: The exemplary role of leading cadres is greater than that of ordinary people; if leading cadres commit crimes, their destructive power to party discipline and state law is also much greater than that of ordinary people. To administer the party strictly, we must always handle affairs according to law, and the specific methods of sentencing must strictly abide by the provisions of the law. But Lei Jingtian's great thing is that when his time and environment were still "impossible to rely on", he already understood the stakes and put the protection of social fairness and justice in the most important position.
In our rehearsal drama, Lei Jingtian has such a line: "The duty of communists is to lift the people above their heads and let their children and grandchildren live in the sun." Lei Jingtian thought so, and did the same. Many viewers said that this line seemed to come from the depths of history, and their hearts were greatly shaken, and they felt admiration for Lei Jingtian's choice from the bottom of their hearts.
Shangguan News: You just said that when you first heard the story of Lei Jingtian, you were still very young. The Huazheng students who came to watch the drama today are similar to your age at that time, how to teach them to understand the "entanglement of human nature" and "jurisprudence" here?
Ye Qing: On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, as legal people, we revisit the party's rule of law spirit during the Yan'an period and listen to the voices of the predecessors of Hua zheng and legal people in order to better answer "why study legal science" and "what kind of legal person should we be?"
The play uses a certain length to show the life scenes and customs of the base area at that time: at that time, people's understanding of the word "judge" was still the image of a "big old man in the sky"; some peasants could not accept the "equal rights of men and women" in marriage; Huang Kegong suddenly broke out a huge antipathy toward Liu Qian, because Liu Qian believed that "marriage must be based on mutual recognition of will and consciousness", because Huang Kegong's understanding of marriage was not completely consistent with his own, and he rejected the other party's proposal...
The purpose of presenting these historical details is to present a basic fact: the road to the construction of the rule of law in modern China is to come from the field step by step, step by step from ignorance to new knowledge. It was precisely in those eras that the Communist Party of China insisted on safeguarding the people's rights and upholding the people's justice, and finally stood on the right side of history, guarded the people's hearts, and won trust.
Knowing where you are coming from can you better move into the future. In the future, the road to the construction of China's rule of law still requires every legal person to achieve it with firm ideals and beliefs and practical actions. No matter what stage of economic and social construction and development the country is in, the basic value orientation of Chinese legal personnel "justice for the people" cannot be changed.
Today, although our students are still young, they have the opportunity to look back at the real events that have happened to our old principal through the artistic presentation of drama, and have the opportunity to look at the past and understand the past with a longer-term historical perspective. Their understanding of the party's original intention of the rule of law, the red gene, and the tradition of strictly administering the party's rule of law will certainly be deeper than that of me at that time.
In 1956, Premier Zhou Enlai signed a letter of appointment from the State Council, appointing Lei Jingtian as the president of the East China University of Political Science and Law. Profile picture
The school emblem worn by Lei Jingtian during his work at East China University of Political Science and Law. The school emblem was the style of the school emblem of the faculty at that time, and the school emblem number of Dean Lei was 0529. Profile picture
The yangqin is Lei Jingtian's favorite instrument. When he encountered setbacks, thought about work, and missed his relatives, he often sat down and played a song. His favorite piece to play is "Nine Nine Sunny Days". Profile picture
The telescope used by Lei Jingtian in 1946-1949 as political commissar of the Two Broad Columns of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Profile picture
To pass every judicial case,
Let the people feel the judicial fairness
Shangguan News: Each generation of legal persons is in different historical conditions, and the missions and responsibilities they need to undertake are naturally different. Were there any people or experiences back then that had a profound impact on your career choices?
Ye Qing: After graduating from high school in 1981, I was admitted to the university and became the third undergraduate student of Huazheng after the resumption of the school in 1979. Prior to this, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978 clearly put forward the basic requirements of the socialist legal system of "having laws to follow, laws to follow, law enforcement to be strict, and violations of the law to be investigated."Comrade Xiaoping constantly emphasized the importance of the rule of law on various occasions, which had a great impact on my filling in the college entrance examination volunteer and my family's support for me to study the law.
I still remember that during my studies, Teacher Su Huiyu, who later became a meritorious professor at the school, gave us a criminal law lesson. His lectures are very vivid and fluent, very logical, and there is not a single nonsense after a class. He combined the basic theories of law with legal practice in his lectures, and I benefited a lot from the interaction between teachers and students in the classroom.
In 1987, the well-known lawyer Zheng Chuanben defended Jiang Peiling's case of harboring shuangge's illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, which also helped me a lot. In the defense, lawyer Zheng Chuanben always adhered to the facts as the basis and the law as the criterion for the determination of facts, the application of law, and the control of procedures. His meticulous detailing of the steps taken by public security personnel explains the importance of procedural justice as much as substantive justice. Although the whole legal profession at that time was to emphasize substantive law and light procedural law, this defense model provided by lawyer Zheng Chuanben greatly inspired me to understand the importance of procedural law.
Shangguan News: I heard that when you graduated from undergraduate and stayed on to teach, the direction you wanted to choose at the beginning was criminal law, not criminal procedure law?
Ye Qing: The choice of the Criminal Procedure Law was an organizational assignment, not my own choice. Before that, I always felt that the Criminal Procedure Law was more procedural, boring to learn, and not easy to teach, and I even thought that the Criminal Procedure Law was a "tool" for the criminal law, and I did not very much want to choose it as the main direction of academic attack. Unexpectedly, I really did research in this area later, and the more I did it, the more I liked it, and the more I did it, the more I went deeper. The reason is that substantive justice is not easy to see, but procedural justice is visible. Procedural justice has its irreplaceable ontological value.
For example, theft, depending on the amount, can be punished by 3 to 7 years in aggravated circumstances. Whether it is sentenced to 3 years or 3 and a half years, and how is it judged in the range of 3 to 7 years? Substantive law cannot solve this problem, procedural law can.
For another example, if a criminal suspect has the right to a defense, has his right to a defense been guaranteed? Did the court serve him with a notice of appearance and a judgment within the prescribed time? When public security personnel go to witnesses for evidence, do they first show their identity documents? If the public security personnel question witnesses and encounter them on the road, they can go directly to ask questions, or must they be carried out at the case-handling site or the place where the witness deems appropriate? In court, how can the words and deeds of judges fully reflect judicial fairness? ...... There's a lot of emphasis on that.
The reason why we have had some unjust, false and wrongly decided cases in the past has a lot to do with the fact that case-handling personnel and law enforcement personnel did not strictly follow judicial procedures to enforce the law. In a sense, procedural justice is the basis for ensuring substantive justice. Once there is a flaw in the procedure, substantive justice is also compromised. Ideally, substantive justice and procedural justice are paramount. Through every judicial case, we must let the people feel judicial justice.
We train legal people
We must not just become "legal craftsmen" who understand business
Shangguan News: Over the past 40 years, legal education has evolved from restoration and reconstruction to sound and well-established, and then to prosperity. What are your expectations for today's legal education?
Ye Qing: The 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "form a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by 2010." Today, China has formed a socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics as scheduled: the legal departments covering all aspects of social relations have been complete, the basic and main laws in various legal departments have been formulated, the corresponding administrative regulations and local regulations are relatively complete, the overall scientific unity within the legal system has been achieved, and the phased goals of legal education have also changed.
In today's world, the reform of the global governance system and international order has intensified, and international competition has become increasingly fierce. As the first front for the cultivation of rule of law talents, the important task facing political science and law academies at present is to coordinate the domestic rule of law and foreign-related rule of law concepts, and make full preparations for cultivating high-quality rule of law talents with both political integrity and ability. On the basis of the existing foundation, we must build a legal system that can meet the needs of the construction of a rule of law China and the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, and have the ability to respond to the challenges posed by the new scientific and technological revolution.
In addition, we must also explore cross-departmental, cross-field and cross-industry discipline development mechanisms to catch up with the world's top universities until we achieve academic catch-up and leading status, enhance China's discourse power in the construction of the international order and its rules, and provide leading Chinese theories and Chinese solutions for global governance.
Recently, the five textbooks of Huazheng were rated as the first batch of high-quality textbooks for higher education in Shanghai. Profile picture
Shangguan News: Young legal talents face heavier tasks and need to look farther ahead.
Ye Qing: Yes. The legal people we train must not just become "legal craftsmen" who understand business. Especially when they need to participate in the construction of the international order and its rules, theoretical sobriety and political firmness are essential qualities. Only in this way can they properly safeguard the interests of the state and the people in the complex international environment.
Specific to our school, we hope that the young legal personnel cultivated by Huazheng should not only be sober in theory and firm in politics, but also be compound talents who can successfully participate in international competition.
The reason why it emphasizes the need to cultivate "compound talents" is because after the construction of the "five centers" and the pilot free trade zone, Shanghai continues to carry out innovative practices around important national strategies such as "double circulation", integration of the Yangtze River Delta, and Pudong Socialist Modernization Leading Zone, which brings unprecedented opportunities and challenges to the cultivation of rule of law talents. As the content and types of legal services in Shanghai become more diversified and high-end, the boundaries between domestic business and international business are further blurred, and the legal service product chain is further extended to cross-value-added services in law and other fields. Only when legal talents have broad knowledge, strong inter-professional practice ability, and profound humanistic heritage can they cope with various unknown challenges.
The training goal we set for "high-end foreign-related rule of law talents" is to be the guardian and disseminator of national culture, but also to be able to integrate international law, economy and trade and other professional knowledge, proficient in one or more foreign languages, can provide high-quality legal services in inter-country trade disputes, overseas trade litigation cases of enterprises, and can participate in the formulation of international legal rules.
The life of the Fa lies in its practice,
The practice is not enough on its own
Shangguan News: You are the legal counsel of the Shanghai Municipal Government and a legal advisory expert of the courts and procuratorates. What suggestions do you have for the construction of the legal system in Shanghai?
Ye Qing: Recently, I have a feeling that the construction of the legal system can play a very great role in supporting and guaranteeing the optimization of our business environment in Shanghai.
Whether the construction of Shanghai's "five centers" can be successful and whether enterprises are willing to invest in Shanghai, the city's legal environment and legal protection are crucial. We must not only let enterprises invest clearly, but also let them clearly withdraw from the market when they need it, and if they encounter commercial disputes, in court, win clearly, and lose clearly.
There is a phenomenon of "home field advantage" in sports competitions, but the construction of a city's rule of law environment must overcome "home field advantage", and judicial adjudication cannot engage in "home and away games". If you come to invest in a business, it is bad to encounter "home and away" problems when fighting a lawsuit.
In order to ensure fair law enforcement, Shanghai should strengthen legislation at the level of local laws and regulations, not only to ensure that our legislation is scientific and effective, but also to ensure that the legislative process can fully absorb and reflect the will of the citizens.
Shangguan News: Some citizens have found that Shanghai's legislative work in recent years has become closer and closer to the lives of citizens and actively responded to citizens' concerns.
Ye Qing: From the previous legislation for "one cigarette", "one dog" and "one bag of garbage" to this year's legislation for "one fish", it is not only to solve the hot and difficult problems that the people are generally concerned about, but also to promote the municipal government system to better use the rule of law thinking and rule of law methods to deepen reform, promote development and resolve contradictions through scientific legislation.
Take the matter of doing a good job in garbage classification management, at the beginning, many citizens did not have confidence. Nowadays, under the escort of local legislation, everyone's confidence in this matter is getting stronger and stronger. Garbage classification has become a new fashion in the lives of Shanghai citizens.
Legislation must be truly effective, first, the law must be a good law, and it must be able to effectively respond to the demands of the people. Second, law enforcement must be serious. Third, the propaganda and education on the law should be meticulous and in place, and strive to promote the formation of a consensus in all sectors of society.
The life of the fa lies in its practice, the dharma is not enough on its own, and consensus is the greatest driving force for action. The work of popularizing the law requires going deep into all aspects of life and forming a consensus in the whole society that "the law is acted on the law" and "the law must be followed" in the whole society. Without extensive and effective publicity and education, and without consensus, it will be difficult for everyone to unify their pace, form a joint force, and act together.
In this process, the government level must take the lead in setting an example, and the government and civil servants must abide by discipline and the law, strictly enforce the law, and play an exemplary and leading role with their own words and deeds of strictly abiding by discipline and law. Only if this is the case can we achieve a good situation in which the whole people abide by the law. This time garbage classification is first from the organs, enterprises and institutions to take the lead in strict implementation, from the strengthening of the assessment and evaluation of civil servants' relevant behavior habits, has played an important role in demonstration and leadership.
Shangguan News: Speaking of popularizing the law, recently, on the Internet, in some TV programs, the performance of some legal people has allowed the audience to see the charm of legal people and the charm of legal thinking. How to make the spirit of the law and the thinking of legal science deeply rooted in the public, what are your thoughts?
Ye Qing: The popular TV drama "In the Name of the People" launched by the Supreme People's Procuratorate two years ago, including the "Night Line Appointment" column of Shanghai Television Station, which was recently attended by many teachers from Huazheng, shows that the carrier of rule of law propaganda can be rich and diverse, and the overall market demand is very strong, and it is also popular with the people.
The judiciary is the last line of defense to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people, whether it is daily law popularization or professional law popularization, it is necessary to have a strong sense of professionalism, responsibility and humanistic heritage. In terms of cultivating professional talents for rule of law publicity, Huazheng will carry out more explorations, grasp the huge opportunities brought by the new media era to publicize and educate on the rule of law, and leverage a variety of media platforms to jointly tell the story of the rule of law in Shanghai.
Actor He Bin (second from left), who has participated in "Passion Years" and "Top Secret Mission", starred in Lei Jingtian, and Zhang Tong (third from right), who had a good performance in the hit drama "The Age of Awakening", starred in Huang Kegong. Zhang Tong said that he had rarely tried a controversial role like Huang Kegong before, and thanked him for starring in the drama "Lei Jingtian" for giving him the opportunity to "deeply understand such an ideological pioneer" and "he explored a future for China's law in the case of reasonable conflict, and this spirit of daring to be the first in the world made me particularly moved." Profile picture
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Liu Sen
Source: Author: Liu Sen