XU ZHIGUAN (HARRIS MANCHESTER COLLEGE 2020 - 2021)
It has been my long-cherished wish to study English common law at Oxford. When I was doing my degree at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL), I participated in several international law moots. I gradually found that any argument in international or transnational legal issues would be incomplete without a common law thinking. I always hoped one day I could have the opportunity to study common law systematically. As the best law school in England and the world, Oxford has always been my dream.
Having said that, I did not apply for the MJur programme until I felt that I was clear about what I want to do during and after my year at Oxford. After graduating from CUPL, I received a full scholarship from the University of Ottawa and studied there. My year in Canada was memorable and fruitful; besides the academic achievement, I also truly realized how important practice was for an excellent legal scholar. My supervisor was an international law scholar as well as a practitioner, and he (and his experience) always reminded me that the life of the law we studied lay in practice. So when I graduated, I chose to return to China and began my legal practice instead of directly continuing my studies.
I started my career in practising trust law and financial regulation. Luckily, this choice helped me connect my everyday work with my interest in the common law system and transnational law. China established its legal regime of trusts without an equity law context (later, I learned that professors in CUPL contributed significantly to it). There are quite a few controversial issues related to the legal concept of trusts in our judiciary and regulatory systems. I am now confident to say that there are many things we younger generation can do and will do to improve and enrich the practices and interpretation of trust law in China. I am also confident to answer what I will do in Oxford and know that the MJur degree will help me achieve my future goals.
Now I also teach international law on a part-time basis at a university in Shanghai and help train the international law moot team. I have decided to develop a common law course with the perspective of Chinese practices for my students after I come back from Oxford – common law is so important in the contemporary commercial world, but for most students with a civil law background, it is not easy to start by themselves.
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Paterson's generosity, my dream of studying at Oxford becomes much more accessible. To me, receiving the Scholarship means not only a great honour, but more importantly, the commitment to contribute to the Paterson community, and the responsibility to help and inspire the younger generations in the future. I sincerely look forward to assuming these roles, just like how I look forward to my life at Oxford.
Having said that, I did not apply for the MJur programme until I felt that I was clear about what I want to do during and after my year at Oxford. After graduating from CUPL, I received a full scholarship from the University of Ottawa and studied there. My year in Canada was memorable and fruitful; besides the academic achievement, I also truly realized how important practice was for an excellent legal scholar. My supervisor was an international law scholar as well as a practitioner, and he (and his experience) always reminded me that the life of the law we studied lay in practice. So when I graduated, I chose to return to China and began my legal practice instead of directly continuing my studies.
I started my career in practising trust law and financial regulation. Luckily, this choice helped me connect my everyday work with my interest in the common law system and transnational law. China established its legal regime of trusts without an equity law context (later, I learned that professors in CUPL contributed significantly to it). There are quite a few controversial issues related to the legal concept of trusts in our judiciary and regulatory systems. I am now confident to say that there are many things we younger generation can do and will do to improve and enrich the practices and interpretation of trust law in China. I am also confident to answer what I will do in Oxford and know that the MJur degree will help me achieve my future goals.
Now I also teach international law on a part-time basis at a university in Shanghai and help train the international law moot team. I have decided to develop a common law course with the perspective of Chinese practices for my students after I come back from Oxford – common law is so important in the contemporary commercial world, but for most students with a civil law background, it is not easy to start by themselves.
Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Paterson's generosity, my dream of studying at Oxford becomes much more accessible. To me, receiving the Scholarship means not only a great honour, but more importantly, the commitment to contribute to the Paterson community, and the responsibility to help and inspire the younger generations in the future. I sincerely look forward to assuming these roles, just like how I look forward to my life at Oxford.