Meet the Class of 2027: Ziyi Kang ’27

Ziyi Kang ’27 is from Tianjin, China, and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge. For the past two years, he lived in Tokyo working on his master’s degree. He comes to Minnesota Law with an interest in jurisprudence and will likely specialize in criminal law, focusing on the legitimacy and purpose of punishment from the Middle Ages to the present day. He feels he will thrive at the Law School due to its innovative education methods as well as interdisciplinary studies through other University programs, and looks forward to communicating and exchanging ideas with his peers while making friends. “Everybody has a unique background, such an exchange process can help me to broaden my view and further my understanding of different cultures and perspectives.”

We’d love to learn a little bit about you. Can you share a bit about yourself?

I come from Tianjin, China. I completed my undergraduate in 2021 at University of Cambridge, and then went to Tokyo studying some branches of pure mathematics, including arithmetic geometry and algebraic number theory. Both my parents are bank employees and I am the first person in my family to attend law school. In my spare time, I like reading, traveling,  and watching anime.

What did you do before you came to the University of Minnesota Law School?

I conducted some research on algebraic number theory in Tokyo during the last two years. My master’s thesis is on Galois module structure, a subject interpreting Galois representations by the study of relative module structures of the rings of integers. My thesis mainly concentrates on the existence problem of relative integral basis, and demonstrates that if the number fields are abelian and satisfy some more conditions, then this existence is equivalent to the splitting of the extension, in a certain sense.

We’re so glad you’re here. Can you tell us why you chose Minnesota Law?

Minnesota Law is a prestigious institute for legal education, and I believe that I can benefit a lot from its innovative education methods, from its strong faculty staffed by law experts like Prof. Brian Bix, and from academic communications with students and instructors of other faculties and disciplines of the University of Minnesota.

What are you looking forward to the most about starting law school?

I look forward the most to communicating and exchanging ideas with my peer students, and making friends with them. Since everybody has a unique academic background, such an exchange process can doubtless help me to broaden my view, acquire new knowledge and further my understanding of different cultures and perspectives.

Minnesota Law strives to embody a culture of equity, inclusiveness, and belonging in the classroom and our community. In your opinion, what are some of the most important aspects of creating a culture where all students feel like they belong?

In the classroom, frequent exchange of opinions and giving everybody proper opportunity to express their thoughts is surely very important. That being said, the equity of expression cannot be attained simply by making everybody say something in sequence. True respect derives from understanding, so it would be better that the discussions be made more pointed. For example, if some topic in discussion happens to bear some relationship with formal logic and mathematics, I will feel justified to expound a bit more than just fitting an average amount of time. On another occasion, when the topic is about chemistry, with which I am not familiar, I would take the part mainly of a listener, asking questions at points where I need explanations. The same principle is probably equally applicable in teaching in general, and it would be ideal if the instructor could educate differently according to different particularities of students, just as Confucius had practiced.

Are you interested in practicing in a certain area of the law? Which one and why?

Criminal law. Indeed, I am interested in jurisprudence, and it is perhaps in criminal law that the philosophical issues in the subject of law present themselves the most acutely, and discussions on such problems as legitimacy of punishment by death and the major purpose of punishment continue from the middle ages right to this day. In the study of criminal law, I expect to concern myself with those questions, and in the meantime encounter and analyze various aspects of human nature from past cases and practice.

Do you have a hobby or special interests? And/or what do you like to do during your free time?

I like to read novels and histories. I am particularly interested in the history, listed in chronological order, of the Han dynasty, Roman empire, Japan in the middle ages and modern Europe from Charles V to Napoleon. My favorite poet is Du Fu. I also spend some time practicing Chinese calligraphy.

Who inspires you and why?

I was tempted to say Emile Zola at the first sight of the question, but I decided to answer with Yi-han Lin instead, an author probably less well-known in the west. Lin, when she was around 16 years old, suffered persistent sexual abuse from her cram school teacher, an experience which made her tormented by lifelong trauma and mental disease until she committed suicide in 2017, and became the basis of her single published novel, Fang Siqi’s Love Paradise. Lin’s influence on me is twofold. It was upon reading her novel that I consolidated my will to pursue a career promoting social justice, and her sublime appreciation of works of literature, embodied in her book reviews posted in blogs, became invaluable guides for me in my own course of reading.

What’s the most recent book or podcast you’ve read or listened to?

The book I have just finished reading is a novel titled The Woman in the Dunes, written by Japanese author Kobo Abe in 1962. The novel, incorporating in its plot symbolism, existentialism and other modern literature elements, implicitly posed the following acute question: Is our life in essence no more than a rebellion against restraints forced by the outside world? In the reading of the novel, I could not help noticing its multifaceted influence on another more realistic masterpiece in Japanese literature, A Personal Matter.

Finally, what or who, in your opinion, makes a good lawyer?

There are many traits a good lawyer should be possessed of, including diligence, insight, eloquence, excellent communication ability, absolute familiarity with statutes and precedents, etc. It is difficult to choose a most crucial one from them, and if forced to do so, I would propose the respect for objective truth. I had also once thought of ‘a clear and correct sense of justice’ in its stead, but upon further consideration, this demand seems not only ill-founded, as whether there exists a universally correct sense of justice is open to study, but also problematic, as such a sense, if assumed too strongly, may readily be linked with prepossession.