On the afternoon of December 8th, Professor Tang Xiaoqing, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Macau and Member of the Committee for the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region under the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, was invited to deliver a lecture entitled Ius of the Romans, Rights of the Chinese at our institution. The lecture was presided over by Professor Chen Youwu, Dean of the School of Law and Executive Director of the Research Center for Human Rights and the Rule of Law at Guangdong University of Technology. Professor Guo Peng from the School pf Law of Jinan University and Professor Tan Min, a Distinguished Professor under the “Hundred Talents Program” of our university, served as panel discussants. More than 50 faculty members and students from the school attended the lecture.

Professor Tang Xiaoqing began with the three major traditions that Roman law has contributed to jurisprudence, expounding on the close relationship between Roman law’s concept of “ius” and the notions of law and rights, as well as the historical evolution of the concepts of law and rights from integration to separation in the contexts of continental Europe, Britain and the United States. Subsequently, Professor Tang analyzed the confusion and disputes arising during the process of the modern localization of the concept and terminology of “rights” in China, and conducted an in-depth discrimination of these issues. He argued that the modern concept of “rights” was translated from English when introduced to China, thus eliminating the need for Chinese scholars to distinguish between “law” and “rights” by adding prefixes to terms, a practice commonly adopted by continental European scholars.

During the final discussion session, the panel discussants and Professor Tang engaged in an in-depth exploration of the latest developments in the concept of rights and related research topics. The lecture hall was filled to capacity. With his witty and engaging style, Professor Tang presented a vivid lesson on jurisprudence and legal history to the faculty and students present, which was met with enthusiastic applause.