Foreword by Weng Yueh-sheng on June 7, 2001

It has been said that “Political ups and downs depends on rise and decline of the rule of law”. Whether the rule of law is in good condition or not is closely related to legal research and education. For legal education, you should place equal emphasis on both quality and quantity to build a solid foundation of rule of law. However, success or failure of legal education depends on the improvement of legal research quality in addition to teachers’ enthusiasm. Legal education in our country has become more and more popular recently, the number of law departments has kept growing continuously, and scholars’ research and publication of results have become vigorous. The publication of magazines or journals is even more flourishing and gratifying. It has been almost five years since the Graduate Institute of Law at National Cheng Kung University was founded, with outstanding teachers, lofty ideals, and teaching and researching in a conscientious way. Teachers at the Institute publish papers and attend discussions in various academic seminars, as well as regularly publishing related monographs in various legal journals and magazines. In addition, the “National Cheng Kung University Legal Theory Series” are published as well. Now, all the full-time teachers at the Institute jointly make a semi-annual journal, which is named “Cheng Kung Law Review” and adopt a strict academic review system, opened to scholars for an article contribution for mutual learning. It will soon be able to foresee that it contributes to the progress of domestic jurisprudence. The first issue is coming soon; therefore, words of encouragement are shown here for reference only.