Bifan Zhao won the First Prize for excellent papers in the seminar “The Integration of Socialist Core Values into the Rule of Law”

Congratulations to Mr. Bifan Zhao, our Ph.D. student, on receiving the First Prize for excellent papers in the seminar “The Integration of Socialist Core Values into the Rule of Law.” On behalf of all prize winners, he presented his paper, “The Meanings and Functions of Socialist Core Values in Legal Interpretation and Reasoning: Analysis Based on 5,028 Chinese Civil Documents,” at East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL) on 30 November 2024.

The seminar was jointly guided by the Publicity and Education Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Legislative Planning Office for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. This seminar was also jointly hosted by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, the Legislative Affairs Commission of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Justice, Shanghai Law Society, and ECUPL on 30 November 2024 in Shanghai. The awarded articles were selected from nearly 200 submitted articles after two rounds of anonymous reviews.

Mr. Bifan Zhao uses natural language processing techniques to count the number of phrases containing “Socialist Core Values” and construct a relevant semantic network to disclose the specific functions and potential problems of invoking Socialist Core Values in legal reasoning. Specifically, Socialist Core Values can play substantive functions in legal reasoning, such as moral evaluation, legal interpretation, and loophole filling. In addition, there are some problems, such as the lack of distinction between judicial reasoning and the judgment basis, the unclear relationship between the Socialist Core Values and the basic principles of law, and the inadequacy of judicial reasoning. He also proposes some measures to solve these problems.