Introduction: Celebrating Stanley Lubman

Abstract

On April 15, 2005 more than sixty scholars from China, North America, and Europe gathered at Columbia Law School for a conference in honor of Stanley Lubman. The conference celebrated Stanley's seventieth year-and more importantly, his tremendous contribution to the field of Chinese legal studies. This special edition of the Columbia Journal of Asian Law includes a selection from the twenty papers presented at the conference.

Stanley Lubman is one of a handful of 2 0 th century Americans who pioneered the study of Chinese law. He has had a tremendous impact upon the development of this subject in the United States-teaching over the years at a number of top law schools and authoring distinguished scholarship. Stanley's scholarly career has in many respects mirrored the rapid development of Chinese law over the past forty years. Stanley began his research on China by interviewing refugees from China arriving in Hong Kong-for at the time it was impossible to enter China. In more recent years, Stanley has played an important role bringing American and Chinese scholars together to advise the Chinese government on the continuing evolution of China's legal system, most importantly in administrative law. He has also served as a mentor to scholars of Chinese law around the world.

When we began planning the conference, we decided to celebrate Stanley's role in developing the field of Chinese legal studies by highlighting the work of "younger" scholars. A doubt occurred; were there really enough scholars of Chinese law to fill an entire day's program? Would anyone produce a paper? Would anyone attend?

In the end, we struggled to cram twenty papers onto the day's agenda. Others who had planned to present papers graciously yielded their places to allow younger scholars to present. We all agreed that when we gather to celebrate Stanley's eightieth birthday we will likely need to schedule a week of discussion rather than just one day.