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Students taking part in the Chinese Law Summer Program visited the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing. During the May 28 visit, Judge Ding Wenyan of the Supreme People’s Court visited with students. She also is a member of the China Institute of Applied Jurisprudence of the Supreme People’s Court. She talked about the court's powers, and discussed the Institute.

Judge Ding also discussed recent reforms, such as the creation of Intellectual Property Appeals Courts and an International Commercial Court, both of which are subdivisions of the SPC. She also talked about the use of “guiding cases” issued by the SPC, and took questions from the CLSP students. In the photo, Judge Ding is in the front row, eighth person from the the left and standing in front of Professor Tom Wilson, who is the CLSP's director. The photo was taken at the court's entryway.

Ancient Chinese law was mostly intended to deal with crimes. The horned animal depicted above the CLSP visitors in this photo is a mythical creature who was able to tell who the criminal was in a case. It used its horn to knock down criminals and devour them. The traditional spelling for the word "law" in Chinese is exactly the same as the name of this creature.

Now in its third decade, the CLSP is hosted at Renmin University of China Law School, a longtime friend of IU McKinney. The program offers students either two or five credits, over the course of two or four weeks of study in China. CLSP students are given an overview of the Chinese legal system and the evolution of Chinese domestic law within the country's socialist market economy.