The seventh (2009) China Forum of Law and Economics was held at the Changchun Taxation College on July 4th and 5th, 2009. This forum was hosted by the Economic Research Institute of Shandong University (center), School of Economics of Zhejiang University, Editorial Department of Economic Research, and co-organized by Changchun Taxation College, Jurisprudence Research Center of Jilin University, School of Economics and School of Law of Jilin University. About a hundred scholars from more than thirty colleges and universities and departments attended this academic forum. Meanwhile, several news media and magazines like Social Science and Guangming Daily also participated in the meeting.
This forum received 135 papers in total, and accepted 63 papers. Compared with the previous, this year’s paper quality improved significantly at two aspects. Firstly, the research questions become more localized, as the vast majority of researches involved hot issues of Chinese legal practice. Secondly, the research methods improve significantly, as the application of measurement and mathematical analysis were more standardized and proficient. At the same time, representatives from academic journals made up the participants in the forum increased significantly, indicating that the research of law and economics in China attracted more acceptance and attention.
The Assembly group discussed the following seven themes in-depth under the requirements of soliciting papers in the meeting.
Ⅰ, Crime and Punishment
Crime and punishment has been the traditional areas of law and economics research, but this forum had the following significant difference compared with previous ones in this field: firstly, more attentions have been put on hot topics involving crime and punishment in China; secondly, the research methods become more standardized, and characteristics of empirical analysis were very prominent.
Ⅱ, Companies and Finance
Progress in the theoretical research of companies and finance has been built on the integration of law and economics .This forum discussed the research on this area and highlighted particular issues of local concerns in China.