Students from Muse College Sitting in on Court Hearing

The court trial, of utmost importance to legal institution, is quite a vague impression to most students. Muse College’s Court Hearing Activity offered such an opportunity where students could take a close encounter with the court trial. As the activity fell on 27 April 2017, namely a day behind the World Intellectual Property Day, the case concerned in the court trial was an online store, the defendant, was suspected to infringing upon intellectual property.

 Students witnessed the overall process of court trial, involving the debates between the plaintiff and the defendant, in which the solemnity of the law could be well explained.

Students also raised questions based on the case in Q&A Part out of session, in which the judges replied earnestly.

The presiding judge, together with two judicial officers provided us with answers based on his professional experiences. For example, when asked the criterion to confirm the intellectual property rights violation, whether the products should be completely consistent, or partly consistent with the design of the patented products, Mr. Presiding Judge resolved the question in dimensional ways under varied scenarios. When asked whether the presiding judge’s opinion mainly contributes to the trial outcome or the court practices the collegial system, the presiding judge declared unequivocally that the court adopts the collegial system in the administration of justice. Also, to follow the principle that the minority is subordinate to the majority, usually a specific case will be attended with odd number of judges, say, 3 or 5. When asked whether the evidence or the persuasiveness of the lawyers from both sides the principal contributor to the judicial outcome, the presiding judge pointed out that debates, or any forms of replies in session, should base on evidence. ----Xi NING, freshman of 2016, School of Management and Economics.

With the booming of the e-commerce, lots of cases are concerned with online business. The theme of today’s court trial -an online store was suspected to infringing upon intellectual property-was exactly one of the above. Also, in Q&A Part, the chief judge enlightened us that there was increasing number of cases concerned with intellectual property rights violation, with false advertising going hand in hand, on e-commerce platform. Despite what Thomas Jefferson, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, once said, laws, together with institutions, must keep pace with the development of human thoughts, the making and modification of a law should take a rather long period of time with a lot of careful investigations and surveys. But we never fail to see the perfection of the law to meet the era’s test. Also, I recognize the significance of existence of a group of outstanding judges like them who are able to face any emerging trends and make sure that our country is ruled by law.----Binghao HE, freshman of 2016, School of Science and Engineering.

Thanks to the court triall activity organized by Muse College, I got a chance to step into the court for the very first time. A sense of solemnity and seriousness struck me when I was sitting in the public gallery, watching the judges making statements based on evidences and facts. Also, we should look before we leap especially after the field trip, which underscored the importance of understanding the law.----Yunteng YANG, freshman of 2016, School of Science and Engineering.

I was immersed in the court trial in a rather calm aura. Also, I admire the judges’ being objective and fair when providing us with detailed information in Q&A Part.----Shuwen HU, freshman of 2016, School of Science and Engineering.

The judges were answering the questions raised by students.

“People’s indifference to rights and judgments is a bad sign for the law.”

----Pound R., the jurist

To raise students’ legal consciousness, we still have a long way to go.

Muse, always with you.