哈佛大学申请书

Personal Statement

Applied Program: LL.M. Degree at Harvard Law School

Requirements:

Please read parts (a) and (b) below carefully and write an essay addressing both questions, with (a) constituting at least half of the total length. Your entire statement should be no more than 1,500 words ---anything exceeding the word limit will be disallowed. Please type or word-process your statement, with your full name on the top of each page and your signature at the end, and attach it to your application.

Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a strategy you would use to address this issue.

(b) Please tell us something about yourself – in particular, why you wish to pursue an LL.M. degree at Harvard and how doing so connects with what you have done in the past and what you plan to do in the future.

Part A

A current legal problem facing China is the judicial corruption and injustices. China’s existing judicial system, established under the conventional framework, is increasingly failing to facilitate the development of the market economy and the formation of a society ruled by law. Judicial injustices have constituted the most serious obstacle that are seriously endangering China’s social and economic programs, jeopardizing social stability and resulting in the general public’s skepticism, distrust and even contempt for the authority of law. China’s accession into the WTO, a drastic event which marks China’s determination to conform to international practices, has further rendered the existing judicial system obsolescent. The system of market economy, which China is assiduously trying to establish, will be inconceivable without a sound judicial system.

With the reform in China’s judicial system becoming inevitable, several strategies can be adopted. First, as the core of judicial reform, judicial independence is the guarantee for overcoming the weak condition of the judicial realm and for creating a just judicial system and implementing constitutional government. The core of judicial independence is the exercise of complete autonomy in the execution of judicial power, with no interference of any external factors, especially the interference from other components of the political system. Judicial independence can be understood on three levels: the independence of the judicial power, the independence of the court and the independence of the judge. The independence of the judicial power necessarily requires the independence of the court. When the independence of the court reaches a certain point, the independence of the judge will correspondingly