Jun Zhao Professor, Ph.D. Supervisor, Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University Vice Dean, Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University Head of Research Institute of International Law, Zhejiang University Jun Zhao is a professor at Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University. He currently serves as the Vice Dean of Guanghua Law School, Zhejiang University as well as the Head of Research Institute of International law, Zhejiang University. He earned his J.D. at Cornell Law School, LL.M. at Harvard Law School, and LL.B. at Zhejiang University.  Before joining Guanghua Law School, he was a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, East Asian Legal Studies. He also worked as a lawyer at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo P.C. and Kirkland & Ellis International LLP. He has published widely on international economic law and comparative law in top journals.   He is a Director of Chinese Society of International Law and Chinese Society of International Economic Law. He also serves as a Vice President of International Law Section, Law Society of Zhejiang Province.

I.  The Importance of Internationalizing Law Libraries

Globalization is widely recognized as epitomizing the features of today’s world. The entire world has fallen with the profound influence of globalization; the law school library is no exception. The development of the libraries is heading towards the trend of digitalization of documents and diversification of functions, on this basis, online service network has been gradually established and a lot of libraries are able to provide their service online. This new trend makes it more urgent for libraries from all over world to focus more on their characteristics and needs when communicating with each other, and to realize the goal of complementation and development.

Chinese law libraries shall understand their reform and development under the context of the globalization and global governance, to learn from other countries, especially the developed countries their perception and methods. While learning the advanced library technology and management experience of other countries, it is also important to support and encourage our librarians to carry out in international study and communications, so that Chinese law libraries can access international frontal new information, new knowledge and new methods. 

At the same time, Chinese law libraries shall let our colleagues from other countries understand the development of Chinese law library industry, to expedite development of Chinese law libraries, and take advantage of the advanced technology such as internet, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing. This not only can show over thousands years of splendid Chinese culture to the world through internet, but also provide us with a strong documentation system that is necessary for competing in the internet era. At last, the goal of circulating data and information among libraries all over the world and the global information resource sharing will be realized, and thus facilitate the internationalization of Chinese law libraries.

II.  What is the internationalization of law school libraries?

Internationalization usually refers to communication and cooperation across borders, ethnics and cultures. With regard to the law libraries, it means the introduction of international activities, carrying out exchanges, and cooperation with law school libraries in other countries. To be more specific, such communication, exchange and cooperation would be comprehensive to cover aspects including online database, managing mechanism, and professional training, etc.

III. Enriching the Content and International Collaboration of Law Libraries

A. Combining with teaching and think tank

B. Using Advanced Technology

C. Reflecting cultural characteristics on the design

D. Facilitating international cooperation (share resource and realize comparative advantages)