On August 27, the Ministry of Education announced the list of secondary and interdisciplinary subjects funded by degree granting units (excluding military units), and the establishment of Cyber Law interdisciplinary subject at Wuhan University was formally approved. The Cyber Law is jointly established by the School of Law, the National Institute of Network Security and the School of Computer Science, with the Wuhan University Institute of Network Governance as the main construction body, involving the first-level disciplines of law, cyberspace security, computer science and technology, with the qualification of conferring doctoral and master's degrees.

As human society has entered the network era, the rapid development of information technology has profoundly changed economic and social life and brought about new changes in social relations. Faced with the opportunities and challenges of the network era, there is an urgent need for cross-disciplinary interaction and a full response through the integration of technical rationality and institutional rationality. Against the background of China's current implementation of the strategy of building a strong network nation and comprehensive adherence to the rule of law, higher education institutions  set up the discipline of Cyber law，which is essential for the development of the disciplinary system of cyberspace security and law, the improvement of the cyberspace governance system and the improvement of governance capacity, and the construction of the socialist rule of law system with Chinese characteristics.

Wuhan University has obvious advantages at Cyber Law. The Law Discipline of Wuhan University was selected as one of the first world-class construction disciplines, the Cyber Governance Research Institute was selected as one of the first Cyberspace International Governance Research Bases in China, and Cyberspace Security was approved as a demonstration project for the construction of national first-class cyber security colleges. Computer Science and Technology was ranked A in the 2017 Ministry of Education discipline assessment, and is also one of the disciplines that entered the top 5‰ ESI global ranking. As one of the first batch of “Double First-class Universities” in China, Wuhan University has a full range of disciplines and is able to integrate interdisciplinary resources for the construction of Cyber Law. Cyber Law will actively promote scientific research and talent cultivation in emerging fields such as international governance of cyberspace, cybercrime, digital economy, digital human rights, and data governance.

The establishment of Cyber Law at Wuhan University will contribute to the interaction and collaborative innovation of technology and law, to the development of a disciplinary system in the field of cyber rule of law, to the promotion of interdisciplinary, multi-perspective and comprehensive academic research and personnel training, and to meeting the needs of the national strategy.

Edited by Yuan Yuhang & Wu Liuqing