Questions from a young university student

[Squawk 1200]

Hello.

 

I am a 22 years old Polish student, currently studying law at a Polish university. After graduating I plan to obtain a PhD degree, probaly specializing in private law (civil and civil procedure). IS there a way for me to somehow link my career to China? I am interested in China (in particular Chinese history and traditional culture), plan to learn Chinese in near future (I have a knack for languages and Polish phonetics is also very similar to Mandarin Chinese). 

 

 

[Mati1]

How about offering legal council (is that the right expression?) to Chinese people in Poland who are in need of such. Of course this requires very good Chinese skills.

Maybe you want to expand your professional knowledge into the Chinese law system as well and study in China (after graduating).

[jgraham11]

I think Poland has an embassy in either Shanghai or Beijing. Not sure if you could find any work there with your degree, but wouldn't be surprised either. Diplomats have a wide range of skills usually. To be one though you'll have to be pretty advanced in Chinese. Then again I know in the US at least they are willing to train their diplomats in a language from the ground up if they think they're a good enough fit, so maybe your country has a similar stance on that

 

Just a place to look into. Good luck

[roddy]

I'd stick with your current plan, but if possible take a year off in the middle of your law degree - you could maybe study in China (CSC Scholarship?), intern with a law firm that does business in China, something like that...

[Squawk 1200]

Thank you for answers.

 

I am good at writing and like to read - so maybe I'll to write a modest article even before graduating. 

[yueni]

If you are a law student and also interested in China, you might be interested in comparative law (in terms of what Chinese law is like). If that is the case, you might find the China Guiding Cases Project an interesting read. It is a project started by Stanford Law School to translate the guiding cases （指导性案例） issued annually by China's Supreme Court, and used to teach/train judges in the "ideal ways" they should make legal judgments. The cases are translated from the Chinese into English by translators, lawyers, and legal scholars.

 

If this is something you are interested in, here's the link: https://cgc.law.stanford.edu/

 

Full disclosure: I was one of the translators on the project early on. =)

[Squawk 1200]

Thank you.

 

Could you recomend specific books about PRC law? May be in English and Chinese (I will read them in the future). You may even recommend specific publishing companies specializing in this type of literature. 

[NotChinese]

Quote

I'd stick with your current plan, but if possible take a year off in the middle of your law degree - you could maybe study in China (CSC Scholarship?), intern with a law firm that does business in China, something like that...

 

Agree with this.

 

I 'accidentally' took a year out of my degree (physics) by almost literally stumbling into a CSC scholarship to learn Chinese for a year. Didn't really have any thoughts for China at the time, but now it's well on my radar and that year in China, plus the new Chinese language skills, are going to help me immensely when putting myself forward as a candidate for job applications in China once I've graduated.

 

A friend of mine runs a recruitment company over there and he told me most organisations want people who have some experience of China already, and there's apparently quite a lack of that so far.

[Kevin Li]

I studied law in Germany and also did half a year of law studies in China. In a lot of Chinese universities, they offer LL.M degrees nowadays with English courses. I think they are either one year or two years long and you can do them after you are done with your studies in Poland, probably even in combination with your PhD if you do your research in China.

 

If I were you, I would definitely look into that. 1 or 2 years in China would tremendously benefit your Chinese.

 

@yueni This project sounds really interesting! Do you have any contacts there? Couldn't find any on the linked site.

[yueni]

@Kevin Li I found an old link on the website for how to volunteer for the project. It used to work, but I'm not sure if it still stands, as I stopped actively contributing about 2 years ago: https://cgc.law.stanford.edu/get-involved/volunteer/

 

Feel free to PM me if you need to.

[Kevin Li]

@yueni: Thanks a lot! I will check out the link!