The China-EU School of Law (CESL; ) at the China University of Political Science and Law is an international law school primarily located in Beijing, China. CESL was founded on the basis of an agreement between the European Community and the government of the People’s Republic of China. It is the only Sino-foreign law school accredited in China. The current Co-Deans are Liu Fei, Bengt Lundell and Monty Silley. History The precursor to CESL was the "EU-China Legal and Judicial Cooperation Programme", which ran from 2000 to 2005. The former Chinese Minister of Justice, Zhang Fusen, first talked about the idea of creating a Sino-European law school in 2003. The head of the Delegation of the European Commission to China, Serge Abou, also promoted this idea to the European Community. In 2007 Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce and current Deputy Director General of the WTO, Yi Xiaozhun, and EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner signed a financing agreement on behalf of both the European Commission and the Chinese government to create a Sino-European law school. This law school was "meant to improve their understanding of each other's legal systems." "CESL attracted a lot of attention even before its formal inauguration." Prior to CESL’s establishment, Premier Wen Jiabao expressed that "CESL will educate a great many talented legal professionals with knowledge of both Chinese and Western laws." The European Commission stated that CESL "will address Governance Capacity-building by improving the knowledge, skills and performance of the Chinese legal profession in relation to European and international law" and will "contribute to rule of law in China by offering to the entire range of legal professionals high quality legal education in EU and international law and practical legal skills." The inauguration ceremony of the China-EU School of Law was held on October 23, 2008, and attended by then Chinese Vice Premier, now Premier, Li Keqiang and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The Asia Times stated that CESL’s establishment was a sign of "the degree of China's openness". The UK House of Lords considered that "the creation of the China-EU School of Law (CESL) in 2008 was the first attempt to institutionalise legal cooperation" between China and the West. CESL was the first law school in China approved by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China under the Sino-foreign jointly administered schools agreement. CESL’s