From "right text" to "governance practice": An analysis of the legal path for the protection of college students' constitutional rights in China
Keywords:
College Students, Constitutional Rights, Right Text, Governance PracticeAbstract
Against the dual backdrop of comprehensively advancing the rule of law in China and modernizing higher education governance, the protection of college students' constitutional rights in China has gradually moved from the "textual declaration" stage to the "practical implementation" stage. As dual subjects of national citizens and recipients of higher education, college students are legally entitled to fundamental constitutional rights such as the right to education, academic freedom, freedom of speech, and dignity of personality. These rights not only represent the core of the modern university spirit but also serve as a crucial criterion for the rule of law in campus governance. However, conflicts between university management practices and students' constitutional rights frequently occur in practice, revealing a disconnect between "right texts" and "governance practices," which is specifically manifested in predicaments such as weak awareness of rights, overreach of administrative power, and failure of relief mechanisms. Based on China's rule of law practice, this paper adopts a combined approach of doctrinal analysis and comparative research, drawing on typical domestic cases and institutional practices of countries including Germany and African nations. From the core perspective of "text-practice" connection, it systematically sorts out the research status of the protection of college students' constitutional rights, deeply analyzes the normative conflicts and implementation obstacles existing in practice, and proposes a trinity-based legal improvement path of "norm-relief-participation." The paper aims to transform college students' constitutional rights from "paper provisions" into "perceivable, claimable, and remediable" practical rights and interests, thereby providing institutional support for the modernization of campus governance.
Downloads
References
Allen, T. J., & Lengfellner, L. G. (2016). Campus violence: Improving safety in a university setting. Professional Safety, 61(2), 28-32.
Barclay, S. H. (2025). Constitutional rights as protected reasons. University of Chicago Law Review, 92, 1179.
Christanti, R., & Sukoco, A. A. (2022). Freedom to learn–independent campus policy: Do we really find our freedom? Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 16(2), 189-198.
Devine, M. E., & Summerfield, C. (2013). Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (Munich, Germany). In International dictionary of university histories (pp. 281-283). Routledge.
Evers, M., & Kamvounias, P. (2025). Ombudsmen and Australian universities: learning from student complaints. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 47(3), 249-265.
Hein, E. (2025). Post-Keynesian economics in Germany since the 1970s: a detailed mapping of the landscape. Cambridge Journal of Economics.
Kovács, K., & Spannagel, J. (2025). Academic freedom: Global variations in norm conceptualization, diffusion and contestation – an introduction. Global Constitutionalism, 14(1), 13-25.
Mzenzi, S. (2022). Analysis of the governance frameworks of public universities in Tanzania: what is known and needs knowing? Business & Management Review, 25(1), 15–41.
Mthethwa, V. (2022). Students’ participation in university governance in South Africa. AOSIS.
Lizzio, A., & Wilson, K. (2021). Student participation in university governance: The role conceptions and sense of efficacy of student representatives on departmental committees. Studies in Higher Education, 46(1), 69–84.
Ndasauka, Y., & Kamchedzera, G. (Eds.). (2025). Academic freedom in Africa: The struggle rages on. University of Malawi Press.
Nnawulezi, U., & Adeuti, B. R. (2022). Promoting human rights in educational sector in Nigeria: Trend of student’s participation. The Indonesian Journal of International Clinical Legal Education, 4(1), 1-20.
McLaughlin, S. (2024). Using Bourdieu’s concept of habitus to explore higher education decision-making for working class women on an access to higher education course. Studies in the Education of Adults, 1-19.
Roznai, Y., & Okubasu, D. M. (2023). Stability of constitutional structures and identity analyst “political settlement”: Lessons from Kenya and Israel. Comparative Constitutional Studies, 1(1), 101-123.
Tapia, E. (2023). Schools’ priority rules and ethnic school segregation. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 44(2), 331-354.
Teese, R. (2013). Academic success and social power: Examinations and inequality. Melbourne University Publishing.
Verger, A., Novelli, M., & Altinyelken, H. K. (2018). Global education policy and international development: A revisited introduction. Global education policy and international development new agendas, issues and policies, 2. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474296052.ch-001
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Pengcheng Zhao, Kun Han
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Those authors who have published with this journal, accept the following terms:
The authors cede all their copyrights to the magazine Cadernos de Dereito Actual, which will be in charge of disseminating and always quoting the author.
The authors agree not to send the article or publish it in another magazine.
The authors are allowed and recommended to disseminate their work through the Internet (e.g., in institutional telematic archives or on their website) before and during the submission process, which can produce interesting exchanges and increase the number of citations of the published work, provided that reference is made to Cadernos de Dereito Actual.
All contents published in the magazine are protected under a "Creative Commons - Attribution - Non-Commercial" license. Everyone has the right to freely access the contents of the magazine.
