From 11 July to 20 August 2022, the summer full English “Cloud Classroom” on International Economic Disputes and Settlement offered by Associate Professor Li Hua of the School of Law was successfully carried out and concluded successfully. The course invited five authoritative foreign experts and famous foreign professors in the field of WTO and International Investment Law. The course focused on the new role of the WTO after the outbreak of the COVID-19, trade and environment under the framework of the WTO, trade and sustainable development under the framework of the WTO, reform of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, digital trade and new international trade norms, reform of the international investment arbitration mechanism, and other hot cutting-edge issues in the course of more than one month’s study. The course attracted more than 30 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students from the School of Law, the School of Management and Economics, and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The first invited expert was Gabrielle Marceau, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and Senior Adviser to the WTO Legal Affairs Division. She is the author of two books and more than 50 articles and papers in the field of WTO Law and other areas of International Economic Law, and has served as an advisor to the Secretariat of WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. In this summer program, she lectured on “New Role of the WTO since the Pandemic”, focusing on the WTO and the COVID-19, the main contents and significance of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, the ongoing WTO institutional reform issues, WTO dispute settlement, and China and the WTO.

The second invited expert was Juneyoung LEE, Chief Counsel/Legal Affairs Officer at the WTO, who has 16 years of experience as a senior expert in Trade Law and policy advising ministerial officials/presidential offices on politically complex international and regional trade and “trade and –“ issues. Taking into account the diverse backgrounds of the students in her lectures, she taught the students the basic theoretical issues of the WTO including the objectives and role of the WTO, the basic principles, the role of the WTO, and the WTO and the environment.

The third invited expert was Monkelbaan Joachim, President of Climate Trade Lead, World Economic Forum, Geneva, and International University Professor of Global Environmental Politics, Geneva. The professor provided in-depth analysis around three themes: sustainability governance and climate governance, biodiversity and the governance of marine and terrestrial organisms, and trade, environment and governance of the sustainable development goals. In addition, he shared his monograph “Governance for the Sustainable Development Goals: Exploring an Integrative Framework of Theories, Tools, and Competetencies” free of charge to the students.

The fourth invited expert was Professor JaeMin Lee, Associate Dean for International Affairs and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the College of Law of Seoul National University, Editor-in-Chief of the Seoul Journal of International Law, Editor-in-Chief of JOURNAL OF EAST ASIA AND INTERNATIONAL LAW and President of the Korean Society of International Economic Law. He spoke on recalibrating the WTO dispute settlement mechanism - status and challenges, international investment agreements and reform of investor-state dispute settlement procedures, digital trade and new trade norms.

The fifth invited expert was Alschner Gerd Wolfgang, Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, whose articles have appeared in leading international journals such as the Yale Journal of International Law, the European Journal of International Law and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, and who is co-editor of the World Trade Review. He is also co-editor of the World Trade Review. The Professor’s lecture was on “From Strong Opposition to Investment Arbitration to Strong Opposition to Arbitrators”.

Through the full English courses taught by foreign professors and the interactive exchanges during the classes as well as the reading of a considerable number of English documents, the students’ English comprehension ability had been significantly improved, while learning more professional knowledge in the field of International Economic Law, and improving their ability to serve the country’s Belt and Road Initiative of the knowledge of foreign-related law. In understanding the development history of international dispute resolution organizations and the corresponding case studies, the students improved their international law literacy and perfected the knowledge structure of their foreign-related legal system.

In addition, in the post-COVID-19 era, Beijing Institute of Technology overcame many difficulties and successfully held the online summer course “Cloud Classroom”, which strengthened the brand building of the course, cooperated with internationally renowned professors and experts in the field of international economic law, enhanced the attractiveness of the brand of Beijing Institute of Technology to students, and contributed to the continuous enhancement of the level of internationalization of the Institute and the construction of the Institute as a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. This will add bricks and mortar to the continuous improvement of the internationalization level of our college and the construction of our college into a world-class university with Chinese characteristics.

Attachment: Some student testimonials

Student 1: This program organized by the university has relevance to the courses of several colleges, which can meet the needs of students from different schools and provide students with an international perspective on related issues. For example, this program has a strong relevance to the School of Economics and Management and the School of Law. Students from the School of Economics and Management pay more attention to trade and investment, while those from the School of Law pay more attention to the application of law, and the different perspectives can spark in the classroom, which makes the content of the classroom richer. Secondly, Li Hua, the teacher in charge of the program, followed up the whole program and played a key role in the smooth implementation of the program. The teachers invited by the school are authoritative in the relevant fields, and their lectures are closely related to the current environment, teaching the current problems in international trade and investment and putting forward their own views on the future reform of the WTO, which is forward-looking and can inspire students to do research in the relevant fields in the future. All in all, I am honored to participate in this program, and I am very happy to have the opportunity to participate in international projects after work, which is a good learning experience.

Student 2: Before participating in this course, I never thought I could have such a close communication with WTO officers and academic leaders, but in this course I have listened to the systematic reports of scholars and industry experts from all over the world, deepened my understanding of the world pattern and the current laws and regulations of the WTO, and further aroused my interest in economics and law; at the same time, my communication with professors in class and writing of academic papers after class also improved my English communication and expression and paper writing skills in the course of my subsequent study. At the same time, the communication with professors in the classroom and the writing of academic papers after the class have also improved my English communication and expression and paper writing ability in the process of subsequent study, and I have met students from different countries around the world, which has broadened my international vision. By comparing the presentations and research contents with other students, I have also identified my own gaps and shortcomings, which lays a good foundation for my future study and personal career development. I am very grateful to the university for providing us with this valuable opportunity to hire a team of high-profile professors, so that we can have a perceptual understanding of many cutting-edge theories and global hotspots, and learn a lot of ideas and ways of thinking that are difficult to come into contact with in the classroom. We are also grateful to the teaching assistants for their patience and responsibility, and for their encouragement and help when we encountered difficulties and questions, which provided us with constant convenience for online learning. Finally, I wish all the teachers good luck in their work, all the students success in their studies, and look forward to meeting again in the future!

Student 3: This summer school has given me a lot of “first time” experiences: the first summer international exchange, the first time to take a real elementary course, the first time to feel a real English classroom, the first time to use Zoom to study, the first time to listen to a foreign expert teaching a professional course, the first time to communicate with a foreign professor in English, the first time to listen to so many lectures and study intensively in a short period of time, and the first time to listen to so many lectures. Listening to so many lectures for intensive study ...... really thank Prof. Li Hua for providing me with this opportunity, so that I have gained so many different experiences, especially some of the contents of the summer school and the investment arbitration moot court in the previous preparation for the competition . It was a wonderful experience to corroborate the competition questions and case studies with the classroom lessons. The language environment in the classroom was also impressive, which made the summer school truly effective for international exchange: if I was given PPTs and other learning materials in advance, I would study them beforehand, so as to clarify the English I didn't understand and try to keep up with the classroom – don’t international students start from studying beforehand to get used to the classroom? Teachers come from different countries and have their own accents, especially Korean professors have heavy accents - but it's the Korean professors who encourage the most interaction in the classroom, just speak up, isn't this the real experience of international learning? At the beginning of the learning process, I can say that it is very difficult, in order to overcome the difficulties, I opened the Youdao Dictionary, and use the shortcut keys to take the words on the screen to translate. At first, I didn't understand what teachers and international friends were saying, but later I was able to catch the key points in their speeches. The language environment was a challenge and an opportunity for me to make progress. I had a wonderful academic trip this summer, and I would like to thank Prof. Li Hua, every teacher, and my classmates who accompanied me along the way!

Student 4: First of all, the lecturers of this summer course were teachers from the front line of WTO and other industries, which brought me a lot of cutting-edge and rich knowledge and analysis. In the past, when we studied in school, most of the time we favored theoretical learning, and the teachers also taught us the knowledge in the process of theoretical research, but for the actual situation of the industry, as a student is still not clear, or not have a personal touch. But in this summer course, some lecturers were from the WTO consultants, many views were from their own experience, which is different from the theoretical feeling learned in the classroom, more of a “sense of reality”, to lead themselves to think about the situation of international trade disputes, It can lead me to think about the situation, problems and solutions in international trade disputes. Secondly, many teachers in this summer program came from famous universities all over the world, which made me develop international vision and understand the teaching methods of top universities abroad. Although I have always wanted to study abroad, I have never had the opportunity to do so because of objective constraints. Many of the teachers in this summer program were from top universities abroad, for example, in the course of “International Economic Disputes and Settlement”, the teacher is Prof. Jiemin Lee from the Law School of Seoul National University, which is one of the best universities in Asia, and the content of the course has also benefited me a lot. There was also Professor Gabrielle Marceau from the Law School of the University of Geneva, and she is also one of the top lawyers in the WTO. The summer program made up for the lack of international exchange resources during our study in domestic universities, and allowed us to come into contact with excellent teachers from various universities around the world, which gave me the effect of adapting in advance for my future study abroad. Again, this summer program is different from the usual format of only one teacher, but is taught by several teachers in the form of lectures, which can be said to have brought together the core contents of each teacher in a relatively short period of time. Because the summer vacation time is very short, it was not possible to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth study and research on a certain topic in a short period of time, but this summer program allowed each excellent teacher to teach from their own specialty and familiar areas, which not only made me feel particularly fresh, but also the amount of information exposed to each class, and there are only 1-2 classes a week, so that I can quickly digest the newly learned knowledge.

Student 5: Many teachers in this summer program come from famous universities all over the world, which made me open up my international vision and understand the teaching methods of top universities abroad. Although I have always wanted to study abroad, I have never had the opportunity to do so because of objective constraints. Many of the teachers in this summer program were from top universities abroad, for example, in the course of “International Economic Disputes and Settlement”, the teacher is Prof. Jiemin Lee from the Law School of Seoul National University, which is one of the best universities in Asia, and the content of the course has also benefited me a lot. There was also Professor Gabrielle Marceau from the Law School of the University of Geneva, and she is also one of the top lawyers in the WTO. The summer program made up for the lack of international exchange resources during our study in domestic universities, and allowed us to come into contact with excellent teachers from various universities around the world, which gave me the effect of adapting in advance for my future study abroad.