Article source: Peking University News Network, text: News Network student reporter Chen Fajun | Editor: Yan Yuan | Editor: Mailou
In 2012, Zhang Xiang published "Social Obligations of Property Rights" in " Chinese Social Sciences ", which is an important symbol of the works of constitutional doctrines that have appeared on the highest academic stage in the field of philosophy and social sciences in my country. For ten years, Zhang Xiang has adhered to the original aspiration of using law doctrine to help China's rule of law construction. As a member of the Filing and Review Expert Committee of the Legal Working Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and a professor of Peking University Law School, Zhang Xiang has been exploring and thinking about what legal research should be like and how to make law better serve public governance in the past ten years.
"Legal doctrine is to type complex norms through explanation and definite methods, construct a unified knowledge system and thinking framework, and set a model argumentation step for analyzing cases, so as to prepare for the application of legal norms and solve legal practice problems in advance." Speaking of his persistent legal methodology, Zhang Xiang could not hide his excitement and enthusiasm. In the past decade, his eyes have been lingering among norms, and his brushstrokes have been stopped within the doctrine. "As rigorous and refined as German precision instruments" is the evaluation of Zhang Xiang by many students at Peking University .
1. From "romantic school" to "standard school": Zhang Xiang's academic shifted to
(Photo: Recent photo of Teacher Zhang Xiang)
Just like most students of Peking University, Zhang Xiang was an absolute "romantic school" when he was studying in Yanyuan , and even once suspected that he had entered the wrong career. "At the beginning, I felt a strong 'craftsmanship spirit' in my study of law, and put my uneven and rich life into fixed frames such as 'legal behavior' and 'constitutional elements'. Although there is no lack of logical deduction, this strict thinking method is very contrary to my scattered and broad-minded personality. In addition to law, I read more works of literature, history and philosophy. Many philosophers and writers read more than professional books." Zhang Xiang found that there were few questions and answers to the ultimate nature of people and society in law, which made him discouraged at that time about becoming a "legal craftsman", but was fond of looking at the "true solution" of legal issues in addition to the law and the grand discourse of philosophical nature.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang (2nd from the front row) participated in the 2002 " Peking University Master's Cup" football match)
After teaching, Zhang Xiang has gained a deeper understanding of national governance. He felt that with the improvement of the level of legislation in and the law, my country's constitution and laws have gradually become scientific, reasonable, protracted and perfected. The actual problems faced by national governance are largely not caused by the flaws of the constitution and laws, but the insufficient development of the objective " legal interpretation ", which makes it difficult for public and private subjects to truly form a common understanding of the constitution and laws, and restricts them from "acting with the law" in public life. Zhang Xiang realized that the real task of constitutional law and even law is to provide intellectual resources to solve this dilemma. In order to fulfill the mission of this era, "What constitutional law lacks the most is not concepts and values, but methods and skills for constitutional interpretation and normative analysis." Under the inspiration and influence of his mentors Professor Xiao Weiyun, Professor Han Dayuan, and other seniors, Zhang Xiang's research interests turned to law and doctrine.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang (3rd from the front row at the left) attended the meeting)
In 2009, Zhang Xiang's research on constitutional doctrine was supported by the National Scholarship Foundation. He came to Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany to conduct a one-year visiting study. From the classroom to the library, Zhang Xiang was eager to absorb the knowledge of constitutional doctrines. He did not miss the big classes, practice classes, and seminars. He lived in the school library for the rest of the time, wandering in the vast sea of German legal dictionaries. The rigorous, stable and sophisticated German constitutional doctrine benefited Zhang Xiang a lot. He gradually formed a systematic thinking on how to learn from German constitutional statistics and construct constitutional doctrines based on Chinese constitutional texts.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang visited studying abroad)
2. Strolling in the systematic world of legal doctrine
After returning to China, Zhang Xiang moved forward vigorously on the road of exploration of constitutional doctrine. Starting from the articles such as "Formal Rule of Law and Legal Doctrine" and "Social Obligations of Property Rights", Zhang Xiang has successively published a series of legal doctrine papers in authoritative legal journals and core journals , trying to overcome the two disadvantages of "breaking" and "trading" in public law research, and advocated "systematic thinking based on normative texts", thereby providing my country's rule of law practice with operability, stability, versatility and precision.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang participated in the International Seminar on Interpretation of the Constitution)
Zhang Xiang's methodological proposition is not only reflected in papers such as "A Beginner of Constitutional Doctrine", but also always closely follows the practical problems in the construction of the rule of law in my country. From motor vehicle restrictions to "close relatives' witnesses are exempt from forced appearance in court", from the constitutional basis of personal information protection to the constitutional implications of family planning , it has aroused widespread attention and attention from the academic and practical circles. , his monographs such as "Normal Construction of Basic Rights" and "Constitutional Interpretation: Principles, Techniques, and Practice" were reprinted in one edition, and after reprinting, they also ranked among the top sales list of legal works for a long time. The series "Selected Interpretation of German Constitution Cases" edited by him has now been published to the third volume, providing a large number of precious comparative law resources for the research on public law doctrine in my country.
As a university teacher, Zhang Xiang always believes that it is a happy thing to teach students the most scientific, reasonable and general subject methods. He opened the " Basic Rights : Principles and Case" course at Peking University Law School, introducing the "three-level" basic rights case analysis framework into Peking University classroom. "In Teacher Zhang's class, we truly understand how to analyze specific public law cases." This is the intuitive feeling of Meng Lianna, a student who selected the course. The student selected by Zhou Lei said: "Teacher Zhang Xiang taught us legal analysis techniques like a ox-cutting, which subtly allowed us to understand the spirit of the rule of law behind legal technology and the awareness that legal persons should have in order to solve the real problems of public life in "according to the law"." In 2017, Zhang Xiang won the first Beijing Higher Education College Youth Teaching Teacher Award and was named "Top Ten Outstanding Young Legal Scientists in the Country", which is also an affirmation of him as a legal researcher and educator.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang (middle in front row) and students who selected courses for undergraduate students in the fall semester of 2021)
"The law is the public instrument of the world." Zhang Xiang believes that the development of the country and society is the root cause and driving force for the progress of public law doctrine in the past decade. In 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pioneered the study and deployment of the basic strategy of governing the country according to law in the form of a plenary session, and demanded the improvement of the constitutional implementation and supervision system in the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning the Comprehensive Promotion of the Rule of Law". Zhang Xiang actively responded to the new needs and trends of the development of the country's legal system. With the strong support of the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Law Society of , the National Social Science Foundation of , etc., he has successively carried out a number of research topics on the constitutionality of legislation, and applied legal doctrine to specific departmental legal analysis situations. "For constitutional scholars, it is an unshirkable responsibility to provide methodological support and legal interpretation resources for constitutional control and constitutional review of the law." In 2021, Zhang Xiang was hired as a member of the newly established Legal Affairs Committee of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He felt that the various new platforms and new systems built by the state gave experts and scholars the opportunity to participate in the practice of the rule of law more conveniently and deeply, providing vivid and specific practical materials for the development of the discipline of law.
(Photo: In 2021, Zhang Xiang (left) was hired as a member of the Filing and Review Expert Committee of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress)
3. Legal research that is compatible and beautiful, and shared by beauty
In 2013, Zhang Xiang was selected as the first batch of "young top talents" of the National "Ten Thousand Talents". In 2020, he was selected as the "Leading Talents" of the Ten Thousand Talents Program. In Zhang Xiang's view, the talent plans and talent policies that the country and schools have focused on implementing in recent years have been very direct and effective for young legal scholars. "The national talent projects support long-term and basic research on independent topic selection, giving scholars sufficient academic space. The country and the school are very tolerant and patient with us young scholars, ensuring that we independently promote the research process. This is a manifestation of respecting the laws of academic development and is of far-reaching significance for the growth of young social science scholars."
At Peking University Law School, the perfect development mechanism for young and middle-aged teachers has benefited Zhang Xiang a lot. The regular teacher academic salon activities are a good platform for teachers to communicate and learn from each other. "Only the fierce collision of academic views and frank arguments and nothing else. Law doctrine, social science, law, and economic analysis compete for beauty and beauty. This compatible atmosphere and sense of academic community are the characteristics and advantages of Peking University." Zhang Xiang said proudly.
(Photo: Zhang Xiang is teaching)
In addition to law, Zhang Xiang is also a veteran football enthusiast and cultural and art enthusiast. Recently, Zhang Xiang and his colleagues organized the Law School Teachers' Football Team, running again in the integrated green field where he had shed countless sweats twenty years ago, and practicing the motto of "complete personality, first in sports". Zhang Xiang is also a calligraphy enthusiast. From physical to online, his "check-in" records have been left after calligraphy exhibitions. Zhang Xiang is also an active user of "B Station". Whether it is the architectural graphic design uptake, the humanistic and historical uptake or the biology uptake, he is interested in learning and avoiding using his current work to frame his life's gaze. Zhang Xiang strongly agrees with and practices Peking University's " Boya Education " concept. He would suggest that students who are at a loss when facing thesis go to check out the crosstalk of Hou Baolin and Ma Sanli . "Only by laying a steady mat, you can shake the burden. The truth is the same as writing a good legal paper."
(Picture: Zhang Xiang (3rd right) plays a football match with his colleagues)
Zhang Xiang has his own understanding of the relationship between "professional" and "general knowledge" in academics: "We chose legal doctrine because it can better serve the development trend of our country's rule of law, and does not mean that we will be self-closed in the law, and are limited to an internal perspective; on the contrary, because our methodological orientation is highly specialized and standardized, we need to observe the ever-changing Chinese society with a broader perspective, absorb knowledge of humanities and social sciences as the background color of our own learning and humanity, so that legal discourse has the 'standardization' and 'human warmth' and 'social care'."
