Liu Qingyu, Christine (Oriel, 2011 - )

In the summer of 2009, I was selected to study at Oxford, where I became interested in the common law system and accustomed to the Socratic Method. Being a member of the translation team for our professor at Oxford, I gathered an exhaustive array of materials pertaining to a Chinese legal case which the judge decided based on principles of justice and equity. I took great interest in analyzing the case from a common law perspective, and later discerned a piece of common ground between the common and civil law systems-the art of making and applying the law lies in striking a delicate balance between concomitant and conflicting evaluations of truth and justice.

Following my experience at Oxford, I have been fascinated by how the Chinese legal system is both akin to and differs from those of other countries. Through my study of these similarities and differences, I have adopted a pluralistic perspective on the rule of law. It is also since that time that I have yearned to receive the unsurpassed legal education of Oxford University. You cannot imagine how thrilled I felt the moment I got the offer from the Mjur Program at Oxford! More amazing was that I received the generous financial support from the David and Jayne Paterson Educational Trust!

I still remember a poem which I saw at Oxford two years ago -- "The more I learn, the more I know. The more I know, the more I forget. The more I forget, the less I know. So why learn?" Now I might still not know the very essence of intellectual endeavors and pursuits; however, I am confident that, after one year's learning at Oxford, I can create a personal understanding of law that I can not only study, but also practice with great enthusiasm.