With its base in Guangdong province, the mission of SCUT Center for Legal Evaluation and Research is to carry out research on theory and practice in relation to legal evaluation and government performance appraisal, and expends its influence across the country. The center sets out to forge a well-known brand and a think tank for national third party appraisal, and also a collaborative innovation base for interdisciplinary research.
The current research interests includes: legal system evaluation, government performance appraisal and related research on appraisal theory and practice.
The center is established relying on several research resources, including institutes such as the School of Public Administration, the School of Law, Guangdong Regional Law Research Center, Guangdong Research Institute of Government Performance Management etc., and subject-related master and doctoral research stations. Besides, it maintained close collaborations with related government agencies and departments,providing decision-making consulting services in the long term. The center has also signed strategic framework agreements with several government organizations, such as the Guangdong Law Society, The Legislative Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress and Statistics Bureau of Guangdong Province etc.
The center has undertaken some major scientific projects and produces significant achievements. In recent years, it has successfully applied for more than 30 longitudinal projects at the MoE-funded and provincial level, and about 60 local government procurement projects. Moreover, a book series in methodology named Opinion Survey and Government Performance Appraisal was published, including Chinese Government Performance Appraisal, Performance Appraisal of Special Financial Funds, Law-governed Government Performance Appraisal, etc.; Around 100 academic papers came out in well-known journals such as Social Sciences in China, CASS Journal of Political Science, Chinese Public Administration and Journal of Public Management.
The center has a total of more than 20 staffs from different research areas, among which 8 are professors. For example, Prof. ZHENG Fanghui, the Director of the center, is a well-known expert in the field of government performance management and the third party appraisal in China. He is a professor as well as doctoral supervisor of SPA-SCUT. Besides, he concurrently held the post of the Vice-President of the Research Institute of National Government Performance Management, the Chairman of the Guangdong Institute of Government Performance Management, an expert of the Policy-making and Consulting Committee, People’s Government of Guangdong Province etc. He is also titled as the Chief Expert of the Major Research Projects Supported by the National Social Science Funds,State Council Expert for Special Allowance, and the New Century Excellent Talent of the MoE.
As a professional Research Institute in the area of third party appraisal, the center has received much attention both at home and abroad for “its independent appraisal subject, improved theoretical system, specified method and process, and open appraisal result”.
