Increasing interest in Chinese law among the students at the University of Bergen

The course is offered by the Faculty of Law and was initiated by the Norwegian China Law Centre. The course is developed by Professor Honhgjie Man from Shandong University, and was taught for the first time in 2016. This year, the popular Professor have come back to the University of Bergen and the Faculty of Law to teach the course again.

High number of students enrolled

The first time the course was taught in 2016, 21 students sat for the exam. Two years later the number had increased to 38 students. This semester the number of students enrolled in the course has risen till 57 students, which is a very high number for an elective course.

- In my opinion this may be caused by an increasing interest for China in general, professor Hongjie Man says.

Popular course among the international students

The course is taught in English and is open for incoming law students from the faculty’s partner universities outside of Norway. A large number of the students who attend the lectures are exchange students from all over the world.

- This gives the in-class discussion an important comparative component, says Professor Hongjie Man.

Two of the students in the classroom, one from Belgium and the other from Netherlands, said that they learned about the course in the list over available courses for incoming students on the university webpage. Both students wanted to learn about the legal system from another country, and they found the course in Chinese law very interesting. They said that this was something not offered by their home universities. “The course is very interesting, giving us an insight and understanding of the Chinese legal system”, says the two students.

Engaging lectures

The students also praise the lecturer, Professor Hongjie Man, saying he keeps the class very interesting and engaging by providing them with good and relevant stories exemplifying the theoretical part of the course, and encouraging the students to take an active part during the lecture.

They highly recommend the course for other students interested learning about other countries legal systems.

For more information on the course please consult the webpage https://www.uib.no/en/course/JUS292-2-A