MRLC Salon Phrase II: Lawyer Zhao Ye Talks about the Function and Practical Use of Law

2015.11.30 - 2015.11.30

At noon on November 30th, 2015, MRLC Salon Phrase II was held in Room 725 of Mingde Law Building. This salon invited lawyer Zhao Ye, a partner from Deheng Law Firm, to share opinions with 15 law school students from freshman seminar Class 7, Grade 2015. Associate Professor Meng Yanbei of Renmin Law School held this salon.

Lawyer Zhao Ye shared with the students on the theme of law’s function and its practical application in real life. Mr. Zhao has extensive lawyer’s practice experience, and he used to deeply involve in the high-profile cases like Huawei vs. IDC and Qihoo 360 vs. Tencent. From introducing these fresh cases, he vividly described what the law is and how we use legal problems in real life. In his view, the establishment of law derived from the need of adjustment of social relationships. Different laws reflect the differences in different normative thinking. For example, the development of Ancient Rome’s business community generates the demands of mediating disputes, which requires standardizing the real right and creditor’s rights. In the 19th century, there had been many anti-competitive practices in the US business community, and then, Sherman Act, which standardizes and protects competition, was born at the right moment.

Mr.Zhao advised the students to learn to "think like a lawyer", to explore things as they are, and to analyze and solve practical problems with the legal thinking. He used two similar infringement cases to deeply analyzed two different handling approaches by the Haidian court and Nanjing court when they dealt with the same type case. He believed that, the trial judge made a controversial assumption in Nanjing Peng Yu case. And in the second instance, the judge settled the lawsuit in mediation, abandoning the pursuit of judicial openness. This result made this case, which has a big social impact, fail to indicate the development direction of social morality. However, when the Haidian court heard the same type case, they strictly used the principle of allocation of the burden of proof. Despite paying a larger judicial cost in this individual case, it established a positive cycle. When people collect evidence, they are more careful and more active. Thereby it reduces the probability of occurrence of similar disputes and costs to resolve disputes.

Finally, Mr.Zhao shared the experience as a lawyer for so many years to the students. He talked from introducing 3Q case to the new challenges, which were raised by the development of law to the legal persons. As Internet is a fast-developing new area, its economic theory has not formed relatively authoritative schools of thought. However, the law cannot stop the steps without the real support of the economic theory. Thus, a lawyer must take the initiative to learn and to construct a self-consistent theory. Moreover, a judge has to understand the theory in this area and judge the rationality and effectiveness of the various theories. Sometimes the law also requires innovation. Legal persons must have the spirit to do something impossible, so the law can be gradually developed and applied.

Associate professor Meng Yanbei briefly summarized the salon. She thanked Mr.Zhao for his sharing of observation of law from the lawyers' professional view. Law is different from other means of adjusting social relations. We need fully understand the function of the law. The so-called "Thinking like a lawyer "and teaching with the cases, are not simply a case study. They need to be traced, so we can recognize that the legal theory and legal practice are inseparable. We can choose the way of thinking from theory to practice or from practice to theory, but both cannot be neglect.