Dai Tao: to Know the Law and to Advocate Morality in Order to Transmit “the Voice” of Rule of Law China

“ The promotion of the construction of the society ruled by law is a long course. As legal practitioners, we are obligated and have full confidence in it.” Dai Tao, a teacher of School of Criminal Justice of our university, has been practicing the social ideal of the legal practitioners. He used to be a law-executor and now he is the speaker of “Legal Lecture Room” of the Channel of Society and Law of CCTV and a teacher in our university. He changed his job without changing his core of the law. As a saying goes, “an educated gentleman cannot but be resolute and broad-minded, for he has taken up a heavy responsibility of a long course.” He has been proceeding down the path of disseminating the law step by step.

Let Every Ordinary Person have Faith in the Law

Born in Wuhan he was designated to Public Security Bureau of Wuhan after graduated from Criminal Investigation Police University of China and worked on criminal investigation, economic crime investigation and preliminary hearing for many years, during which he gained degrees of Mater of Laws and Doctor of Laws and passed the Judicial Examination. After that, he was transferred to ZUEL as the teacher for the courses of “Economic Crime Investigation” and “Major International Cases”. He had gained rich experiences of the real-life cases in the previous job, which, combined with legal knowledge, helped him to make the boring knowledge interesting and easy for the students to understand. His amazing teaching style attracted a lot of students to register in his class of “Major International Cases”.

“The aim of the class of ‘Major International Cases’ is to allow the non-law majors to learn more general knowledge of the law. As college students, they should at least know the major cases like Watergate and the Assassination of Lincoln.” He said that, he did not just teach the general knowledge of the law, but also taught the general social knowledge and politics. Maybe the students couldn’t recite the articles, but they could get to know more about legal concept and the legal system and culture of our country. Dai Tao valued his teaching job the most among all his jobs. It is engraved in his heart that he is a legal practitioner who takes passing along his inspiration and perseverance to the students as his own dream.

When asked about his transfer in the career, he said that “life is never planned and every certainty comes along with accidents.” Opportunities are for the people who are prepared. The job experience and theoretical accumulation gave him the faith to be a great speaker of “Legal Lecture Room” and allowed him to stand on the platform of CCTV to spread the concept of rule of law. Dai Tao, when talking about the original intention of becoming a speaker in “Legal Lecture Room”, said that, as a scholar, he needed to express his opinions with words that could be easily understood by the ordinary people. “I want to let the ordinary people learn more about the legal culture of our country while doing chores and have more faith in the law of our country.”

“To Gain More Recognition Means to Gain More Responsibility”

Since 2011 to now, Dai Tao has recorded about 70 episodes of “Legal Lecture Room” as the speaker. Along the way, he has received a lot of recognition from universities, students, friends and family. It touched him the most when a freshman met him in the 2nd Canteen of Shouyi Campus and told him that the student had been watching the program since high school. The student said that he got to know and came to ZUEL because of Dai Tao. Dai Tao didn’t know that he had influenced so many people with the program.

After the broadcast of the program, Dai Tao received many letters from all over the country. He remembered that there was one case that was still not closed up. That person was convicted in 1973 and got 20 years. After being imprisoned for 20 years, the person had been trying to right the wrong for anther 20 years. The case was still not reversed but Dai Tao said, “I will help him as much as I can even just for the sake of the past 40 years. Along the way to the society ruled by law, there are still many misjudged cases. However, justice can be late but never absent. We shouldn’t lose faith in the law.” As a legal practitioner, he chooses to forgive and tries to perfect the law. What he is doing is to let more ordinary people have faith in law and law-executors and believe in rule of law in China.

“We have been Striving for the Rule of Law Society”

When talking about the obstacles encountered in the promotion of the society ruled by law, Dai Tao thinks that there are now two approaches of disseminating the law. One approach is to educate people with the publicity of the law and the other is to enhance the authority of the law with strictenforcement. However, some misjudged cases have made people lose faith in law. How can people have legal awareness when the law becomes empty phrases in their minds? What we have been striving for is that, in the society ruled by law, the supremacy of law should be the social consensus and no force can go beyond the law. Dai Tao illustrates the social mission of a legal practitioner with his actions. The meaning of each and every profession is to really serve the society and people to promote the development of the country. Dai Tao remembers his original intention in different jobs and tells us that we are always on the path of disseminating the law with his climb and challenge.