In the morning of Oct 23rd, 2009, the lecture of “ Social Development and Constitution of China----lecture of five constitution scholars” took place at Conference Room No.602 of Mingde Law Building in Renmin University of China . The lecture was hosted by Professor Hu Jinguang, associate director of Renmin University of China Law School. Professor Qin Qianhong of Wuhan University, Professor Wang Guanghui of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Professor Zhou Wei of Sichuan University Law School, Professor Zou Xuepin of Shenzhen University Law School and associate professor Shangguan Piliang of Suzhou University Law School had expressed their opinions on the constitutional problems during the development of Chinese Society. .
Professor Qin Qianhong pointed out that scholars should try to feel the problems of Chinese society themselves and face the social problems by their independent thinking. For example, the political cowardice and lack of sense of responsibility were reflected by the difficulty in the establishment of information publicity. The lack of the society’s justice bottom line was reflected by the increasing cost of the social stability.
Based his speech on the topic of “ Making constitution a common law for politicians and jurists”, Professor Wang Guanghui made a suggestion to make constitution a common law for both politicians and jurists in hopes that they can reach an agreement on constitutional problems. As a result, politicians were required to have a high level of academic qualification and jurist were required to have a better understanding of the current situation of China and to find out exactly where the problem was instead of simply copying the foreign systems.
Professor Zhou Wei talked about the problems he had paid attention to in recent years, such as case guiding system and the protection for the rights of the minority and the handicapped----the vulnerable of the vulnerable group. He also pointed out that with the development of Chinese society, many problems should be thought about from a constitutional view and many areas were yet to be explored by scholars.
Associate professor Shangguan Piliang pointed out that it was necessary to do some research on the comparative relationship between political powers which was a condition for constitution and that constitutionalism could only happen when there was a balance between “inner power ” and “outer power”. In the meantime, he had made some suggestions on the constitutionality interpretation to which he had paid special attention.
After the five famous constitutional scholars had given their opinions, the postgraduates and visiting scholars present raised questions on journalism freedom, regional autonomy institution of minority groups , the legal status of the standing committee of Regional People’s Congress and so on. The professors answered the questions by making profound analysis from different angles. Through this lecture, people got a better understanding of the uniqueness of China’s constitutional problems and the importance of constitution in the present Chinese society.
