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Legal Education at a Turning Point: A Case Study of Hong Kong

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The Internationalisation of Legal Education

Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 19))

Abstract

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region in China, and its common law system has been guaranteed by its Constitution, while China is primarily a civil law jurisdiction. Hong Kong is currently in the process of its second review of its legal education, and it is essential to examine the impact of internationalisation of legal education in Hong Kong at this critical moment. China’s internationalisation and its rising status as an important player in international economy has strengthened the importance and role of Hong Kong as a center in international finance, trading, shipping and aviation. Such core businesses have brought companies around the world to Hong Kong. Their businesses require internationalised legal services. This chapter examines various aspects of internationalisation of legal education in Hong Kong. It argues that Hong Kong’s unique international status determines that internationalisation of legal education is more important to Hong Kong than most other jurisdictions. That is the foundation for the provision of world-class legal service and the maintenance of Hong Kong’s international competitiveness. Particularly, Hong Kong should produce more lawyers who are qualified to practice in two different jurisdictions, especially those who are qualified to practice in both Hong Kong and mainland China.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Article 5 of the Basic Law provides that: “The socialist system and policies shall not be practised in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.” Besides, Article 8 of the Basic Law provides that: “The laws previously in force in Hong Kong, that is, the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law shall be maintained, except for any that contravene this Law, and subject to any amendment by the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”

  2. 2.

    The Standing Committee is a statutory body established by S74A of the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, Cap. 159.

  3. 3.

    Article 9 of the Basic Law provides “In addition to the Chinese language, English may also be used as an official language by the executive authorities, legislature and judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”.

  4. 4.

    These are examples of some courses taught at the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong.

  5. 5.

    At the law schools of both CityU and the HKU, they offer two specialized LLM programs in intellectual property law, and arbitration and mediation.

  6. 6.

    See Article 84 of the Basic Law.

  7. 7.

    For the full text of the ICCPR, see Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2015); for the full text of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, see Hong Kong Legislation (1997). As the long title of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance provides, it is “[a]n Ordinance to provide for the incorporation into the law of Hong Kong of provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong; and for ancillary and connected matters.”

  8. 8.

    See for example, R v Sin Yau Ming (CACC 289/1990), http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/lrs/common/search/search_result_detail_frame.jsp?DIS=2675&QS=%28sin%2Byau%2Bming%29&TP=JU (Last accessed 5 March 2015).

  9. 9.

    See for example, Chau Tsun Kiu v Secretary for Justice (HCAL 112 of 2012), http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/lrs/common/search/search_result_detail_frame.jsp?DIS=94922&QS=%28human%2Brights%2BAct%29&TP=JU (Last accessed 5 March 2015).

  10. 10.

    See for example, W v The Registrar of Marriages (FACV 4 of 2012), http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/lrs/common/search/search_result_detail_frame.jsp?DIS=87115&QS=%28european%2Bcourt%2Bof%2Bhuman%2Brights%29%7C%24%28recent%29&TP=JU (Last accessed 5 March 2015).

  11. 11.

    The Standing Committee is responsible for administering the conversion examination for non-Hong Kong law graduates for PCLL admission. These three courses are called top-up courses. Please refer to Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training (2015a) for details.

  12. 12.

    Paragraph 1 of Article 158 of the Basic Law provides that: “The power of interpretation of this Law shall be vested in the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.”

  13. 13.

    It was done through the enactment of the Application of British Laws Ordinance.

  14. 14.

    On its website, it stated that the School of Law was established in 2004 and started to take first batch of students in 2006. So this paper takes the latter year as the formal establishment date. See The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law (2015).

  15. 15.

    This is the figure the author obtained from the websites of the three Law Schools on 3 March 2015. Their websites are as follows:http://www.law.hku.hk/faculty/acadstaff.php, http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/slw/people/fulltime.html, and http://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/people/academic-staff.php#academic-staff

  16. 16.

    Most of them studied in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

  17. 17.

    See Law Society of Hong Kong (2015). According to the Law Society of Hong Kong, as of 31 December 2013, the total number of Practising Certificates issued was 7864. See Law Society of Hong Kong (2013).

  18. 18.

    In 2013, the Law Society of Hong Kong administered the annual Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination for 239 candidates. See Law Society of Hong Kong (2013).

  19. 19.

    For example, former Dean of the Faculty of Law of HKU made some of these points at a conference on legal education held at CUHK in 2013.

  20. 20.

    One good example is that the current Deans of all three Law Schools are from other common law jurisdictions, two from the United Kingdom, one from Singapore.

  21. 21.

    Chief Justice Li actually went to London to persuade the law lords to be non-permanent Justices of the Court of Final Appeal.

  22. 22.

    They are: The Hon Sir Anthony MASON, GBM, The Rt Hon the Lord HOFFMANN, GBS, The Rt Hon the Lord MILLETT, The Rt Hon Sir Thomas Munro GAULT, The Hon Mr Justice Murray GLEESON, The Rt Hon the Lord NEUBERGER of Abbotsbury, The Rt Hon the Lord WALKER of Gestingthorpe, The Rt Hon the Lord COLLINS of Mapesbury, The Rt Hon the Lord CLARKE of Stone-cum-Ebony, The Rt Hon the Lord PHILLIPS of Worth Matravers, The Hon Mr Justice James SPIGELMAN, and The Hon Mr Justice William GUMMOW.

  23. 23.

    Please refer to the following websites: http://www.law.hku.hk/faculty/acadstaff.php, http://www6.cityu.edu.hk/slw/people/fulltime.html, and http://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/people/academic-staff.php#academic-staff

  24. 24.

    Please refer to discussion in the next section on internal multiplicity of legal systems.

  25. 25.

    Macau was a Portuguese colony and Macau’s sovereignty reverted to China in 1999, 2 years after the sovereignty over Hong Kong reverted to China.

  26. 26.

    After China assumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, several constitutional crises had occurred. At one stage, all Permanent Justices of the Court of Final Appeal seriously considered to resign collectively, but eventually decided not to do so. See Bokhary (2013).

  27. 27.

    Some international law firms have said that knowledge of Chinese law is a plus for law graduates if they want to work for their firms.

  28. 28.

    In addition to research track, there also exists a teaching track in all three Law Schools in Hong Kong.

  29. 29.

    This is the target set in the Academic Development Proposal (2010–2015).

  30. 30.

    For the current composition of the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training, see Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training (2015c).

  31. 31.

    This is in the 2015 Strategic Plan for the School of Law.

  32. 32.

    For those going to courts in China, they will first study Chinese law and visit various governmental organs in Beijing for 2 weeks first.

  33. 33.

    Many of them do specialized LLM courses at the three law schools.

  34. 34.

    If a student works hard, he can finish his JD degree in 2 years.

  35. 35.

    This is the fastest track for a person with a first degree to get qualified to practice law in Hong Kong.

  36. 36.

    See the benchmarks set by the Law Society of Hong Kong (2007).

  37. 37.

    For the functions of the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training (2015b).

  38. 38.

    This is because by doing all other courses in Hong Kong, a student should have known Hong Kong legal system very well.

  39. 39.

    This is the arrangement for 2012 cohort and onwards. The courses include: Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Law of Evidence, Equity & Trusts, and Commercial Law. For details, please refer to Bachelor of Laws with Honours Student Handbook 2014–15.

  40. 40.

    See Juris Doctor Student Handbook 2014–2015.

  41. 41.

    For details, see The Law Society of Hong Kong (2007).

  42. 42.

    They include: advocacy, professional conduct, trust and office accounting and financial management, client care and revenue practice.

  43. 43.

    The English document was issued on 4 January 2001. For more information, see https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/media/1612925/bptc_handbook_2014-15_final_with_covers_4.9.14.pdf (last accessed 6 March 2015).

  44. 44.

    The Bar Association’s benchmarks are not available on any website and are on file with the author.

  45. 45.

    The minimum is 21 credits while the maximum is 30 credits.

  46. 46.

    HKU requires students to take 240 credits which are equivalent to 120 credits at CityU.

  47. 47.

    See Bachelor of Laws with Honours Student Handbook 2014–2015.

  48. 48.

    It is because independent research is a 3-credit course whereas dissertation is a 6-credit course.

  49. 49.

    See Juris Doctor Student Handbook 2014–2015.

  50. 50.

    Paragraph 1 of Article 13 of the Basic Law provides that: “The Central People’s Government shall be responsible for the foreign affairs relating to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”

  51. 51.

    See Postgraduate Certificate in Laws Student Handbook 2014–2015.

  52. 52.

    At CityU, it is called JSD whereas at HKU it is called SJD and there are no particular reasons why they are called differently.

  53. 53.

    Previously Tsinghua University Law School offered its LLB through HKU and that program is no longer offered.

  54. 54.

    The number of students going to common law jurisdictions is much larger than to civil law jurisdictions and mainland China.

  55. 55.

    There are two variations, i.e. Chinese Law and Chinese Business Law.

  56. 56.

    The Law Faculty at HKU offers this type of Joint/Dual degrees program.

  57. 57.

    The Law School at CityU offers such program with several European Law Schools. HKU offers such a program with Peking University Law School.

  58. 58.

    This is a model adopted by CityU for non-law degrees. It is possible to be used in the future for LLB degree.

  59. 59.

    That’s CityU’s model.

  60. 60.

    This is the HKU model.

  61. 61.

    One under discussion is double JD degrees model. After obtaining a JD degree from each of the jurisdictions, a student will have the academic qualification to move on to vocational training stage in both jurisdictions.

  62. 62.

    See the benchmarks of both the Law Society and the Bar Association.

  63. 63.

    For the details of this review, see for example The Law Society of Hong Kong (2001).

  64. 64.

    These have been incorporated into the LLB degrees and discussed by scholars. See for example, Caplow (2006), Ramsden and Marsh (2014), and Chow et al. (2006).

  65. 65.

    This is the position at both HKU and CityU.

  66. 66.

    CityU has reached agreement with the University of Law to do this.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Ms Pinky Choy, the research fellow of the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law of the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong for her assistance in completing many footnotes for this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Law, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    Feng Lin

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Correspondence to Feng Lin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Law School, Sciences Po, Paris, France

    Christophe Jamin

  2. Faculty of Law, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

    William van Caenegem

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Lin, F. (2016). Legal Education at a Turning Point: A Case Study of Hong Kong. In: Jamin, C., van Caenegem, W. (eds) The Internationalisation of Legal Education. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29125-3_8

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