American professor Debra S. Lee, who is the director of English Language Concepts, came to visit UIC on April 9th. She gave us a lecture on the "American Legal System". It just lasted for an hour, but students benefited a lot through the bright atmosphere and western ideas about "legal system".
Professor Lee started the lecture by showing a statue called "Lady Justice", which implied the justice of law. She told the students that we could use laws to change laws that were unjust. Professor Lee also analyzed some disadvantages of the American Legal System, and described how American blacks fought against the laws which were unequal to them. She said that China was changing now, so it might become necessary for Chinese students to learn how to change laws for further development of China." After the lecture, Professor Lee said: "There is one thing which I hope students can remember, that is you can change laws, but it will take some time."
Law is serious, but the lecture was lively. It was like a free forum between Chinese students and the Western scholar. They started talking about law, and then discussed about the society, and life. The Professor kept encouraging students to ask questions. She even asked students to write questions on a paper and then answered them one by one. When talking about her personal experiences, she told the students how she travel round the world for three years, and asked them to study their entire lifetime and enjoy their lives at the same time. Her opinions surprised all the students regardless of the different cultural background. Holly, a year-2 student from GIR said: "The lecture is short, but I am really encouraged by the professor's spirit of pursuing knowledge."
Professor Lee will stay in Zhuhai until the late April as a guest of BNU, and she plans to give a series of lectures about "American legal system" to students in UIC and BNU. She said: "Chinese students are very friendly, and I just enjoy this work".
Written by Student Correspondent: Liu Yiqian
Media & Public Relations Office
