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01
About the Author
School of Law, China University of Political Science and Law.
This book originated from the lecture series of "Law Thinking Writing Workshop" at the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law. The keynote speakers span public and private law, covering jurisprudence, constitutional law, administrative law, civil law, criminal law and other departmental law fields, and the theme focuses on the basic elements and training steps of academic training, including thesis topic selection, data collection and specific operation methods, academic norms and a series of contents.
02
Introduction
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Table of Contents
Lecture 1: What is Academic Essay Writing / Lei Lei
Lecture 2: The Historical, Philosophical and Political Aspects of Law and Jurisprudence: Taking the History, Philosophy and Politics Hidden Behind Typical Legislative Precedents as the Entry Point / Li Min
Lecture 3: The Style, Style and Logical Composition of Law Essay Writing / Zhao Hong
Lecture 4: A Discussion on Law Essay Writing / Wang Wanhua
Lecture 5 Law Essay Writing: Accumulation and Operation / Zhang Xiang
Lecture 6: How to Write a Dissertation: A Discussion on the Global Perspective and Chinese Consciousness of Legal Research / Peng Qian
Lecture 7 Topic Selection and Writing of Criminal Law Papers / Lao Dongyan
Lecture 8 Law Essay Writing / He Haibo
Lecture 9: Empirical Research on Law: How to Practice and Express / Hou Meng
Lecture 10 Law Dissertation Writing Skills / Yi Jun
Professor Lei Lei's first lecture "What is Academic Paper Writing" as an introduction, starting from the three perspectives of problem awareness, academic tradition and argumentation ideas, took the research and writing of jurisprudence as an example, and explained the requirements of "small, clear and new" in academic paper writing, that is, the theme and entry point are small, the expression and structure are clear, and the topic, perspective and material are new.
Professor Li Min did not stick to the formal skills of thesis writing, combined with specific legislative precedents and social topics, and shared with you how to explore the historical, philosophical and political meanings behind the law, and integrate them into an excellent academic paper. "Methods are important, but methods are like 'formal factors', which are related to how you plan what you think, think, see, and hear. But a good paper first needs a lot of "material factors", and material is the factor that determines the intrinsic quality of a paper. Therefore, today I would like to focus on the general material factors that affect the writing of academic papers, that is, the requirements for the writer in terms of intellectual accumulation. ”
Professor Zhao Hong focused on the overall observation of the shift from legal scholars to normative law, and expounded how to strengthen the logical argumentation in thesis writing and form a distinctive writing style. In this paper, Professor Zhao Hong compares the two different writing styles of legislative theory and interpretation theory, pulls the perspective of the legislator back to the perspective of a person who applies the law, and focuses on the analysis of norms on the basis of respecting the validity of the current law.
In view of the writing needs of law undergraduates, Professor Wang Wanhua explained how to carry out academic planning and training from the beginning of the freshman year, and provided a very practical writing guide. Among them, the study and accumulation of social knowledge by law students is emphasized. Only with social common sense can the law be applied in a timely manner, and our judges often see that behind each case may involve complex ethical issues, complex issues at the stage of social development, and so on. You can't just study the law, you can't just analyze our norms.
Professor Zhang Xiang combined his writing experience and practical materials in constitutional law to vividly describe the specific operation methods of legal paper writing, from ranking materials, literature review, title selection, word choice and sentence formation. In particular, the writing idea of "Functionalist Interpretation of the Principle of Allocation of Power in the Mainland State" is introduced in great detail, including two steps: one is the accumulation in the process of literature combing, marking and extracting relevant materials, and the preliminary viewpoint, general framework and even writing strategy of the initial paper; OK box
After reviewing the material that you have combed through earlier, you will begin to think about the relationship between the literature and the various parts of the paper, and in which part the passage might be cited. In this way, the literature and materials you have previously read can be grouped under the various headings. ”
Based on his own doctoral dissertation topic selection and research experience, Dr. Peng Qian shared the core propositions of dissertation writing with young students, providing a broad international perspective and vivid practical guide for students who are interested in studying abroad and using foreign languages to write dissertations.
Starting from the basic issue "justifiable defense" in the field of criminal law, Professor Lao Dongyan combined his own experience in gradually broadening the research on this issue, and guided the students to analyze the problems comprehensively and deeply, expand them step by step, and discover innovative thinking paths.
Professor He Haibo, the author of the best-selling book "Law Essay Writing", is also the promoter and practitioner of law essay writing teaching, starting from the basic issue of the importance of essay writing, combined with his own years of writing and teaching experience, he inspires students to think about the field of legal research and fully explore their own potential.
Professor Hou Meng has been deeply engaged in the research and writing of legal sociology for many years, and shared with the students how to apply the methods of legal sociology to the research and writing of legal papers. A paper on the study of law experience goes through the following four long processes: reading, fielding, thinking, and expressing, the most important of which is doing fieldwork. "I'm doing the field
Many of the problems with the pre-design, once you enter it, often do not exist or are not important. Many of the questions were obtained after talking to the person concerned and were discovered after entering the field. Therefore, I personally recommend that you can make a rough outline before doing the field, but it is not necessary to make a detailed list. It is important to find problems in the field, organize them, present experiences, and consider what words to use to explain. This discursive interpretation is the process of turning experience into empirical research. ”
Taking the topic selection and writing of civil law academic papers as an example, Professor Yi Jun expounded how to carry out academic innovation and thesis writing from four aspects: the core issues of legal academic paper writing, the topic selection of thesis writing, the collection and verification of materials for thesis writing, and the specific technical problems of thesis writing.
03
Personal insights
According to the book, the original intention of the establishment of the "Fasi Writing Workshop" is to cultivate students' interest and ability in writing, and gradually promote the cultivation of their academic spirit and academic norms, so as to improve the writing quality of their academic papers and graduation theses, and improve the pass rate of paper sampling. Therefore, compared with other essay writing guides, this book is the closest to the life and needs of students. Reading for both topic selection and writing structure is most rewarding.
In the selection of topics, there are two aspects: innovation and the separation of real problems. Creativity is the life of essay writing. Lecture 10 provides several practical methods. The first is to open up new fields of research, to find problems that have not been studied or rarely studied, on the one hand, from within each discipline, such as the problems that need to be studied urgently brought about by the new legislation, and on the other hand, it can be found at the intersection of various disciplines, as Hayek said, "the harmful consequence of the division of disciplines is to leave a field that no one has set foot in". The second is to adopt new research methods. The third is the use of new materials, including materials in foreign languages and materials from other disciplines. In order to separate the real problem, it is necessary to distinguish between the two concepts of subject and problem. Professor Lao Dongyan explained very clearly in the seventh lecture. Justifiable defense is only a topic, and it is necessary to further clarify the focus on the issue--Is it appropriate for justifiable defense to have a consequentialist tendency in judicial practice, which is not conducive to the defender, or even binds the defender and pushes him into a dangerous situation--Since consequentialism has such obvious defects, why should the judiciary still adopt this approach--consequentialism is more operational, but will it be stable if it is easy to operate? Is there a more solid theoretical support?—— The relationship between the practical determination of excessive defense and the theory of valuelessness of results.
In terms of writing structure and grid, I would like to compare the two styles of legislative theory and interpretation theory in Professor Zhao Hong's third lecture "The Style and Logical Composition of Legal Essay Writing". The writing style of legislative theory: first, to find out the problem, first to find out what kind of chaos exists in the society; second, to find the reason, there is no legal norm in this field to adjust, and then the conclusion is that there are gaps and loopholes in the legislation; third, to solve the problem, by looking for extraterritorial legislative experience, such as American legislation, German legislation, to fill the legislative gap. This way of thinking is from the perspective of a legislator, believing that with a basically complete legal system, the whole society can achieve a good state of operation. This way of thinking makes complex social issues relatively simple. Moreover, from the perspective of public law, the constant call for legislation is in fact a constant call for the state to intervene in life. With the intervention of the state, it may bring about the encroachment and squeezing of individual rights. Therefore, when it comes to leading theoretical writing, legislative theory may not be a good way to write it.
The style of hermeneutics is closely related to legal doctrine or legal hermeneutics. The first is the description of positive law, the second is the conceptual and systematic interpretation of positive law, and third, within this framework, the formulation of proposals for resolving difficult legal cases. In fact, it focuses on the logical analysis of legal norms and legal concepts themselves, integrates these concepts into a whole, and applies the results of the analysis to the reasoning of legal adjudication. On the basis of respecting the validity of existing laws, the analysis of norms is focused. At this point, the specification can be analyzed, just like the material in physics. Of course, the premise is that the rules are clear enough, the logic is self-consistent, and the system is complete. The way to improve a law is not necessarily to legislate, and it is actually quite difficult to amend a law, and in many cases, it may be more appropriate to interpret the method, which can also add value to the legal norms themselves on the basis of maintaining the unity or stability of the legal order.
Producer: Zhang Yongjiang
Author: Liao Peilei is a 2022 Master of Laws student at the School of Law of Xiangtan University
Editor: Liao Peilei
Editor-in-charge: Chen Mingxue
Review: Wu Xia
Hunan Provincial Criminal Rule of Law Research Association
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