N° 2 - Marzo 2003 – Cronache

The Chinese Society of the History of Foreign Law

15th annual national conference

Roman law’s develepment in china

8-11 August 2002

The 15th annual national conference of the Chinese Society of the History of Foreign Law was held from August 8th to 11th in 2002 in XiBi Mountain Villa at Guiyang ,the capital of Guizhou province. About one hundred experts and scholars from various colleges, academic institutions and presses all over the country attended the conference. They had active discussions and shared academic achievements on the reform of foreign judicial systems.

The one of most important achievement of this meeting was the creation of the Filiations of Chinese Romanists in this society. Prof. Dr. Xu Guodong, who is the head of the Xiamen University Institute of Roman Law and well-known in the field of Roman law and civil law research, was elected President of the Filiations. Prof. Dr. Xu plays an important role in diffusing the Roman law in China. He set up the Xiamen University Institute of Roman Law and found the first Roman law annual in China - Roman Law and Modern Civil Law , furthermore he established the first Roman law bilingual(Chinese and Italian) web sit in China. He and his colleagues trained in Italy created a new era of diffusion of Roman law in China. Of course, other scholars also contributed to the process. Some of them, Prof. Wang Feng of the Ministry of Justice, Prof. Fei Anling and Prof. Ding Mei of China University of Political Science and Law, were elected directors of the Filiations.

At the first session of the Filiations, the discussion of scholars focused on the teaching methods of Roman law in China, the composition of textbook of the course of Roman law and the revision of the exist translation of the Italian Civil Code. Then three decisions were approved. The first one is the plan to open courses of perfection of Roman law for teachers of the materials, which will be held by China University of Political Science and Law with the collaboration of II Roma University (Tor Vergata) of Italy. The first class will be opened in May 2003 at China University of Political Science and Law. What’s exciting is that some famous Italian professors will give lectures there. Many experts and scholars are interested in it and more than ten people expressed their desires of enrolling in it. The second plan is that Prof. Huang and Prof. Ding are composing two textbooks of Roman law respectively. They are expected to be of higher quality and be more practical than previous books. The third plan is a new and revisioned translation of the Italian Civil Code by Prof. Fei and Prof. Ding.

No doubt, the future prospects of the Filiations of Roman law will be bright and Roman law will spread more widely in China.

By Yang Yinhong

Xiamen University

People’s Republic of China