On Oct 10th, Professor Gu Peidong of Sichuan University Law School , along with He Yiting, associate dean of the Central Policy Research Office and professor Zhu Suli, director of Peking University Law School lectured at he Seminar of the Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China upon invitation.. About 180 people attended the seminar, including all the members of the Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee, namely Mr. Zhou Yongkang, member of the standing committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Mr. Meng Jianzhu, State Councillor and so on, together with leaders of associate ministerial level and above of Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Security, and some of the bureau level leaders of central Political and Judiciary organs and the personnel in charge of the law schools in Beijing.CCTV news made special report on this seminar.

The preparation work of this seminar started from May,2009. With special attention, the Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China had held a series of conferences to discuss the theme and the content of the seminar. The original them for the seminar was “ Self-development and Perfecting of Justice System of Socialism with Chinese Characters”. However, the content of the forth session of the Central Committee was later included with its opening and more leading lecturers were invited. Before the seminar started, Mr Zhou Yongkang received three of the leading lecturers.

The topic for Professor Gu Peidong’s lecture was “ Thoughts about Relevant Problems on the Road to Autonomous Rule of Law of China”. His lecture summed up China’s current justice situation as a transformation on the road to rule of law, which meant that the road to the rule of law in China was turned into a way in which China should find an autonomous legal system in line with the practical situations in China with the aim of solving the real problems in China ,instead of simply learning and drawing lessons from western countries as we did before. The lecturer made some specific analysis on the reasons for transformation. Then he went on the discuss the four major theoretic problems concerning rule of law in China, namely “ Among all the western theories of rule of law, what kinds of resources are really worth our attention and learning?”, “ Legalism is not the key principle for the rule of law”, “ The real definition of independence of judicature and its practices in western societies” and “ Does rule of law mean legal centralism?”. Then the lecturer expressed his understanding of the leading concept of the autonomous rule of law from eight aspects. Finally, he gave definition to four problems in autonomous rule of law. With around 1,7000 characters , the article will soon be published.

Professor Gu Peidong’s lecture won the approval and good evaluation of the leaders in both the trial lecture in the organs of Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee and the lecture at the seminar.