In the 2022 National University Student Environmental Resources Moot Court Competition held on March 5, 2023, our university’s Law School sent out a team of ten (9 student contestants and 1 faculty adviser) and won the championship with the highest team score. Fan Jiayuan (樊嘉源), an undergraduate team member, was awarded the honor of “Best Player” which was given to only two people out of more than 120 participants.
Tianjin University Competition team (Fan is the first person from the right)
Talking about the honor, Fan was very humble and gave credit to the team’s collective efforts and the strong support from the school. “We are like a machine, each part doing its best and bringing out the best performance. The honor belongs to each and every team member.”
A Calm and Eloquent Speaker who drives ideas home
As one of the only two undergraduates in TJU’s competition team, Fan Jiayuan was very conscious of his advantages and shortcomings the day he was selected into the team after multiple trials organized by the Law School.
“I haven’t had any systematic learning about environmental law before, so I had to catch up a lot in academic study. ” That means a huge load of out-of-class study. But Fan Jiayuan was never intimidated by the challenges.
“I’m kind of a stubborn person. Once I make up my mind, I stick to it and hate to give up halfway.” He managed to squeeze time out of his already fully-booked-up class day and made it a habit to read some academic papers each day while preparing for the competition. “Sometimes I have to skip my lunch and use the time to practise with our team. The good thing is, it helped me lose some weight,” Fan joked.
He was grateful to his team members and his adviser in particular. “Our faculty adviser, Teacher Tian Yiyao helped me a lot. He is always ready to answer my questions and helps me grasp some general idea about the competition knowledge.”
While trying to make up for his knowledge deficiency, Fan never slacked in honing his debating skills.
“My experience and expertise in debating is what got me into the competition team in the first place and my competitive edge that I hope would benefit my team in competition.” He is a member of the university debate team and had participated in more than 20 debate competitions. He also founded student debate team of the Law School. “We all know that debating help improve our logical thinking, expression skill and most importantly, the courage and urge to stand up and speak out our thoughts. Those are indispensable qualities for legal practitioners.”
Hard work paid off. Fan Jiayuan was calm and confident before the match began. “I felt a strange calmness building up inside me as I told myself, let’s do it after so many preparations. We are going to make it.”
A passionate law student who believes the mission of law is to protect people's rights and interests.
At a very young age, Fan Jiayuan has figured out his life passion-- to be a law practitioner.
“It’s like a family inheritance. My father’s work is related to law. Every place he visits, he would find the local bookstore first and buy books. Our house is filled with all kinds of legal books and I started to read Marriage Law in my junior high school since it is very easy to read and understand,” Fan laughed.
Interest is the best teacher. The young man is always eager to study and experience both on and off campus.
He excels in academic performance, ranked number four in his grade; he has several internships in judiciary institutions, improving his practical skills; and he pushes on legal researches and led two innovation and technology programs, one of university level and the other of Tianjin Municipal level. From Compensation for mental damage in personal information infringement to Research on data capture and legal protection of personal information, Fan Jiayuan firmly believes that law enactment turns the society into a better place.
“The dignity of the law lies in the protection of individual rights. Be it the procurator or the defense lawyer, we have a consistent goal to protect individual rights.” Fan said solemnly and proudly.
He plans to further his legal study after he obtain his bachelor degree in 2024. “I love our Law School. It boasts of excellent faculty, teaching quality and research achievements. In recent years, it has been developing very fast. I have the confidence that it will become better and better. I’m proud to be a legal student at Tianjin University.”
By Eva Yin
