Recently, the Ministry of Education issued The Announcement on the Second Batch of Huang Danian-style Teaching Teams in Institutions of Higher Education, in which the list of the second batch of “Huang Danian-style Teaching Teams in Institutions of High Education” was made public. One teaching team from China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), led by Prof. Huo Zhengxin was included. The team focused on the study of international law and foreign-related rule of law.
Team Profile
Teaching & Education
The team members pay attention to integrating first-hand experience of foreign-related rule of law into teaching. This helps students realize the importance of learning and inspires their passion for learning. It also helps students to develop a sense of historical responsibility as well as national self-confidence, a profound love for their family and their country, and a global vision.
During the critical period of fighting COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, Prof. Huo faithfully performed his duties and took the lead in integrating the historical achievements derived from this period into teaching activities and offered an open online course on epidemic prevention and control named “A Study on the Rule of Law in Epidemic Prevention and Control: From the Perspective of Comparative Law and International Law”. After the open online course was released on major media platforms, such as the APP named “Learning To Make China Stronger”, hundreds of thousands of students took it online. On the one hand, the course helped young students fully understand the significant advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics and China's governance system. On the other hand, the course played a guiding role in helping universities and colleges in Beijing resume normal teaching life. That was why the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued a letter of commendation for Prof. Huo’s contribution.
The team is keen to innovating the education models of foreign-related legal talents. Many teachers in this team have won teaching awards at or above the provincial and ministerial levels. The team members also continuously improve the mechanism for cultivating foreign-related legal talents with international moot court competitions as its highlight. The education mode enjoys front-runner status in China and a good reputation around the world. Because of his contributions to talent cultivation, Prof. Huo was elected as a member of the Steering Committee for Laboratory Construction and Experimental Teaching of the Ministry of Education. He also won many teaching awards, including the Young Famous Teachers’ Award in Beijing Colleges and Universities, Beijing May Fourth Medal, Special-grade Senior Professor of Imparting Knowledge and Cultivating People in Beijing Colleges and Universities, and Baogang Excellent Teacher Award. Prof. Huo had made outstanding contributions to cultivating high-quality foreign-related legal talents.
Innovations and Achievements in Scientific Research
Focusing on international law and foreign-related rule of law, the team has carried out scientific researches on the following topics, the “Belt and Road” initiative, the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, coordinated development of domestic rule of law and foreign-related rule of law, as well as the return of lost Chinese cultural relics from overseas, etc. This team aimed at building a world-class theoretical system of international law and foreign-related rule of law with Chinese characteristics. The team had presided over four major projects sponsored by the National Social Science Foundation of China and more than 100 other scientific research projects, such as annual projects supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China as well as the major post-funded projects of the Ministry of Education. With a large number of scientific research achievements with important theoretical and practical value, such as the publication of dozens of monographs and more than 100 papers in Chinese and English, the teaching team have won many national awards for their scientific research achievements. The team also made great efforts to expound on China's proposals related to international law, to build a Chinese theoretical system of international law, and to safeguard China's national sovereignty, interests as well as dignity. Prof. Huo was selected as “Distinguished Professor” and “Young Scholar” in the National Major Talents Program because he had made practical contributions to the innovative development of Chinese theory on international law.
Social Services
Members in the team actively participate in improving public awareness of the rule of law. They have published nearly 100 articles concerning the rule of law in major newspapers and periodicals such as People's Daily and Guangming Daily. Xinhua News Agency and other Chinese central media agencies have interviewed them more than 100 times. They have participated in CCTV's “News Broadcast”, “Topics in Focus", "News 1+1" and other programs for a long time. Many members of the team are hired as commentators by China Global Television Network (CGTN) to give their insights about news events related to major issues concerning international law and foreign-related rule of law. For example, when some Western countries suppressed and imposed sanctions on China, as well as when they smeared our country during COVID-19, members of this team made great contributions to guiding international public opinion.
