Event

Chinese courts do not have the power of constitutional judicial review.  Courts do have limited powers of judicial review (for example, of specific administrative actions).  And mechanisms of constitutional review are part of China’s constitutional system (with the power of review vested in the National People’s Congress’s Standing Committee).  Recent years have bought proposals for change (including some calls for a constitutional court) and a rich discourse about “constitutionalism” has emerged.  What is the state of judicial review and constitutionalism in China today?  What are the prospects for change? Wang Zhenmin is Dean and Professor of Law at Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing. He is an Executive Director of the China Law Society, Vice President of Chinese Association of Constitutional Law.

Dean Wang has served as a member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee and Macao Basic Law Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, which interpret the “mini-constitutions” for Hong Kong and Macao. Dean Wang’s many books and articles focus on Chinese constitutional law, the Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macao, and legal aspects of Mainland-Taiwan relations.  He is a graduate of Zhengzhou University Law School and holds an LLM and PhD from Renmin University Law School. He did post-graduate research at Hong Kong University Law School and studied Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School.  Dean Wang is a foreign member of the American Law Institute—the second scholar from China ever to have received that honor.

 * Lunch will be served