CUHK Faculty of Law

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law (abbreviated as CUHK LAW) is a law school in Hong Kong.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law
Established2004
School typePublic
DeanProfessor Lutz-Christian WOLFF[1]
LocationShatin, New Territories, Hong Kong
Enrollment1,503[2]
337 LLB
571 JD
59 BBA-JD
339 LLM
158 PCLL
39 MPhil/PhD
Faculty50
Websitewww.law.cuhk.edu.hk

History

In 2004, the Chinese University of Hong Kong submitted its Academic Development Proposal for the 2005–08 triennium to the University Grants Committee (UGC), where it set out its desire to establish a new law school as part of a key element of the University's ten-year vision. The proposal was accepted, whereupon the School of Law was established as the third and newest law school in the territory. Mike McConville, Simon FS Li Professor of Law, was appointed as the first Director of the School.

The School of Law, with its founding group of LLB, JD and LLM students, was formally inaugurated on 9 November 2006. The first research students, comprising MPhil and PhD candidates, were admitted in 2007. The Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) programme, the professional qualification programme required for admission to the legal profession in Hong Kong, began in September 2008. On 1 August 2008, the School of Law was renamed the Faculty of Law in recognition of its expanded size and development. In 2010, the Faculty established a careers advice programme in conjunction with its Virtual Careers Resource Centre, first of its kind among Hong Kong law schools, to prepare law students for entering the profession or to explore alternative career paths. In 2014, the Faculty established the Career Planning and Professionalism Office and Paul Mitchard QC was appointed the Director of the Office.

On August 2011, McConville stepped down from the Deanship and has remained an emeritus professor at the Faculty. He was succeeded by Christopher Gane, former Vice-Principal and Chair of Scots Law at the University of Aberdeen School of Law, Scotland, as Dean and Simon FS Li Professor of Law in September 2011. Upon his retirement in September 2019, Lutz-Christian Wolff, Wei Lun Professor of Law and former Dean of the CUHK Graduate School (2004-2019) assumed the Deanship. Wolff was a founding member of the Faculty of Law (then: School of Law). He specializes in international and Chinese business law, private international law as well as comparative law. In addition to Wei Lun Professor of Law awarded to Wolff in 2014, the Faculty currently has two other named professorships: Choh-Ming Li Professor of Law awarded to Chin Leng Lim in 2017 and Simon FS Li Professor of Law awarded to Bryan Mercurio in 2019.

Ranking

The Research Assessment Exercise Report of 2014, prepared by the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Government, ranked the CUHK Faculty of Law at first place under the Law panel.[3][4]

The annual QS global university rankings, released on 29 April 2015, showed that in the subject category of “law and legal studies”, the Chinese University of Hong Kong ranked 42nd world-wide. These rankings are based upon academic reputation, employer reputation, and research impact.[5][6]

Campuses

The Faculty operates on twin sites, with its headquarters at the University main campus in Shatin. The LL.B students conduct their undergraduate classes in Shatin at the Lee Shau Kee Building, which includes its own moot court.[7] Situated immediately next to it is the Lee Quo Wei Law Library, located on the 3rd and 4th floors of the University Library.

The graduate-level law classes for the JD, the LLM and the PCLL are held at the CUHK Graduate Law Centre (GLC), on the second floor of the Bank of America Tower in Admiralty.[7] Located in the central business district of Hong Kong, the GLC is within walking distance of the Hong Kong High Court, the Court of Final Appeal Building, barristers' chambers and law firms. The GLC has its own legal resources center, considered a "mini law library", as well as lecture theatres, a multi-purpose moot court, break-out rooms and a computer lab to facilitate teaching and learning.

The Sir TL Yang Society, named after Ti Liang Yang, a former Chief Justice of Hong Kong, is organised by the Faculty of Law. It arranges activities and social functions to assist law students in their academic and professional development. The primary student governments at CUHK Law is the Undergraduate Law Society and the Graduate Law Students Association (GLSA).

In 2011, the GLSA founded the GLSA Gazette, a law student publication which "aims to encourage students to engage in key legal issues, contribute to legal scholarship, and to build closer ties between law students and the wider legal community."[8] It was thereafter rebranded as the Hong Kong Student Law Gazette in 2012 and has remained a student-run organization encompassing undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Gazette has since received tremendous support from the faculty and Hong Kong’s legal community, including industry leaders, the judiciary and the city’s top law firms.[9]

Degrees granted

The Faculty of law offers both undergraduate and postgraduate level law degree programmes. Unlike most other common law jurisdictions, the LLB and the JD exists simultaneously in Hong Kong, allowing for potential admission to the legal profession through an undergraduate or a postgraduate route.

Undergraduate

It offers a full-time four-year Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) Programme. The degree offers students a general and professional education at the undergraduate level. Successful applicants who enroll in the LLB programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong are given the opportunity to choose a double degree option towards the end of their first year. Two double degree options are available for LLB students: Law and Translation; and Law and Sociology.[10]

Postgraduate
  • Juris Doctor (J.D.)
  • Joint JD/MBA degree
  • Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Chinese Business Law, Common Law, Energy and Environmental Law, and International Economic Law
  • Master of Philosophy in Laws (MPhil)
  • Doctor of Philosophy in Laws (PhD)
  • Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (P.C.LL.), required for admission to the profession

Notable people

The Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Faculty of Law is the Honourable Justice Kemal Bokhary, a founding Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal who continues to serve as a Non-Permanent Judge on that Court after his retirement in 2012. The inaugural Dean, Mike McConville, is a well-respected socio-legal scholar. Other internationally notable former and present faculty members include Michael Pendleton (intellectual property), Nina Jørgensen (international law), Ling Bing (Chinese contract law), Yu Xingzhong (constitutional law), Chin Leng Lim [11](international dispute settlement), Bryan Mercurio [12] (international economic law), Robin Hui Huang [13] (corporate and financial law), Anatole Boute [14] (energy law), Gregory Gordon [15] (international criminal law), Xi Chao [16] (Chinese corporate law) and Bryan Druzin [17](legal theory).

Honorary Professors

Honorary Visiting Professors

Research centres and programmes

Centre for Financial Regulation and Economic Development (CFRED)

Established in September 2010, the Centre supports and facilitates research in all areas of law affecting commerce and business dealings, including the fields of banking law, capital markets, commercial law, contract law, corporate law, investment law, intellectual property, securities regulation, international trade law, tax law, and any other economically focused area of law.

Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law (CCTL)

Established in January 2020, the Centre aims to support Faculty’s research in comparative law and transnational law, with a particular focus in the fields of comparative rights and justice; comparative constitutional law; private international law; and legal history and development.

Refugee Clinical Assistance Programme

The Refugee Clinical Assistance Programme, formed in conjunction with the Justice Centre Hong Kong (formerly known as Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre HKRAC), allows undergraduate and postgraduate law students to practice direct client services under the supervision of a qualified lawyer. Students receive class credits for their work at the Centre, where they are involved in assisting the most vulnerable categories of asylum seekers (namely unaccompanied minors, victims of sexual and gender-based violence, etc.) with making their cases to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in accordance with the UNHCR's refugee status determination procedures.[18]

International moot court competitions

Since its inception, the law school has hosted and participated in numerous international mooting competitions. For instance, in March 2007, the School of Law hosted the 4th Annual Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot at the Graduate Law Center in Admiralty. The international competition brought over 40 law schools from around the world to Hong Kong.

The CUHK Vis team, composed of first year JD law students, earned a team honourable mention and an individual honourable mention in their first moot competition at the 4th Annual Vis (East) moot.[19] In the Vis (Vienna) Moot 2008, CUHK finished 17th out of 214 participating teams and a team mooter received an honourable mention for his advocacy skills.[20] At the 10th Annual Vis (East) moot in 2013, lead oralists Jenny Chan and Felicity Ng took the team to the elimination round and finished at the Semi-Finals, marking the team's first appearance at the Vis (East) elimination rounds and further defeated the defending champion in the quarter-finals. In 2014, CUHK went into the elimination rounds in both Hong Kong and Vienna, in addition to receiving a total of 9 honorable mentions from Vis (East) and Vis (Vienna), 5 of which were from Vis (Vienna). This placed CUHK as the top university for having the most awards and honorable mentions. In 2016, CUHK emerged as the Championship team at the 13th Annual Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration moot. In 2020, CUHK won again the championship at the 17th Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot which was held virtually for the first time amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CUHK Jessup team have made significant achievements at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition since 2008. Especially noteworthy is the 2010 team's winning the Hardy C. Dillard Award, which honours the best overall memorials worldwide submitted by both the applicant and the respondent (out of almost 600 teams). During the regional round in 2008–2009 and 2009–2010, the CUHK Jessup team won the prizes for Best Team, Best Oralist and Best Memorial and represented Hong Kong at Washington, DC.[21][22] At the International Rounds in 2010, the CUHK team ranked 19th overall from the 105 competing teams who made it to that stage of the competition.

Other programmes

See also

References
  1. "Professor Lutz-Christian WOLFF".
  2. https://web.archive.org/web/20110809115534/http://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/faculty/student-numbers-1011.php. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2011. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. 港大法律學院的研究項目僅有46%達三星至四星的「卓越標準」，遠低於中文大學法律學院的64%，更有3%研究屬劣等的「U級」
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2015/law-legal-studies.
  6. http://www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/news-and-events/news.php?events_id=481&cat_id=19%5B%5D
  7. "CUHK Faculty of Law". Law.cuhk.edu.hk. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  8. "Student Societies". Archived from the original on 16 July 2013. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  9. "Hong Kong Student Law Gazette".
  10. https://web.archive.org/web/20081118155011/http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/law/llb/doubleDegree.html. Archived from the original on 18 November 2008. Retrieved 23 February 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. "Prof. Chin Lrng LIM".
  12. "Prof. Bryan MERCURIO".
  13. "Prof. Robin HUANG".
  14. "Prof. Anatole BOUTE".
  15. "Prof. Gregory GORDON".
  16. "Prof. Chao XI".
  17. "Prof. Bryan DRUZIN".
  18. Justice Centre Hong Kong Clinical Legal Education Programme
  19. "The Fourth Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot Awards 2007". Cisgmoot.org. 13 April 2007.
  20. "Achievements of Previous CUHK Vis Teams". Law.cuhk.edu.hk. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  21. "CUHK to represent Hong Kong in the world's most prestigious mooting competition". Nems.law.cuhk.edu.hk. Archived from the original on 18 December 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
  22. Law students win thorny debate March 7th 2009

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