The Reform Strategy of Legal Education in China

First, traditional legal education does not encourage creative thinking by students. Traditional Chinese legal education consists of teachers on the platform speaking and students in the audience listening—the “spoon-feeding” method. Teachers are the protagonists; students are passive recipients of legal theory. There are few discussions between teachers and students and examinations are a test of memory rather than of analytical and reasoning abilities. This makes it difficult for students to cultivate the ability to think independently. Second, the traditional teaching model is rigid, outdated, and detached from actual practice. Our legal education attaches the most importance to teaching theory. This focus on theory means improving students’ thinking, reasoning, and practical skills is neglected. By focusing on teaching theory and not teaching application of the theory, students develop a theoretical understanding of legal theory, but lack the ability to apply it. Students also rarely have the opportunity to be exposed to actual practice and understand the application of the law. This creates obstacles to the study of law and later the work of students who then cannot adequately meet the needs of building the legal system. Third, traditional legal education ignores students’ vocational skill training and building of a sense of professional responsibility. Traditional legal education not only ignores students’ practical training, but also neglects their professional responsibility training. Fourth, traditional legal education does not pay attention to the social service functions of the law. “Legal aid” is one of the social service functions of the law, but Chinese traditional legal education is almost totally detached from “legal aid.”