Part I: The School Itself
As the older and perhaps more established of the two universities offering law curriculum in Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong bears the weight of big expectations.
 Though essentially a Chinese university, faculty and students from around the world flock to the campus, perched high in the lush hills of western Hong Kong Island. Indigenous and exchange personnel alike seek the institution as its own entity, but also for its proximity to the cultural and business capital that is Hong Kong.
Founded in 1910, the University of Hong Kong is structured much like European universities. Thus, law is offered as both an undergraduate and graduate course of study. The relationship between the 1L year of law school in the U.S. and the 1st through 3rd years of an LLB law program in Hong Kong is somewhat analogous: undergraduates study the basics of both Hong Kong and Chinese law, including such familiar courses as criminal law, torts, constitutional law, and legal writing/research.
The LLM program, on the other hand, allows graduate students to pursue more specialized and advanced courses of study. As a J.D. candidate from an U.S. law school, one is offered the option of taking either LLB or LLM courses. Most Americans choose LLM courses, among which are several focused in international law as well as business practice in the emerging market (and legal Petri dish) of the People's Republic of China. A sample LLM schedule: Regulation of Cyberspace I: Technology & Internet Governance, Company Law & Securities Regulation in the People's Republic of China, Public International Law, and Trade & Investment in the P.R.C.
Beyond the structural and administrative differences between its counterparts in the United States, the experience of being a law student in Hong Kong is rich with cultural and procedural nuance. Students are extremely deferential to each other, and quite eager to hear what each other have to say in class discussions, which occur with greater frequency and participation than in American law schools I have attended. And while their system does share some of the competitive aspects of its American counterpart, Asian students seem not to compete so much with each other as they do with themselves and their own past efforts. The professor/student relationships seem similar to that which you'd find in an American law school, though perhaps a bit more casual.
 One of the more fiscally-pleasing aspects of law school in Hong Kong is the purchase of a required text book for each class being the exception rather than the rule. Instead, law students' collective fees subsidize a bustling print shop within the Faculty of Law. This print shop not only provides photocopies of every class' required readings, but delivers them weekly to small mailboxes known as "pigeon holes" that are assigned to each student. Beyond the distinct financial advantage afforded by this scenario, the freedom from the shackles of a single text allows professors to draw a wide variety of sources into reading assignments, including many law journal articles.
Though there plenty of full-time graduate students, the LLM program draws many part-time students currently working in various legal professions in Hong Kong, Macau and proximate mainland China. Obviously, these students are often in a position to make unique contributions to class discussion. And when this dynamic is added to the mini-United Nations created by the range of exchange students' nationalities, discussions are interesting and quite lively to say the least. Indeed, one LLM class boasts students from Austria, China, Germany, Nepal, India, Japan, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Korea…and this is not uncommon. The faculty is also diverse. Though there are many white-skinned native English speakers, there are an equal number of Chinese professors, as well as visiting lecturers from all over the globe.
All told, as an academic experience, attending law school at the University of Hong Kong is quite stimulating and satisfying. Though an interest in international issues seems somewhat necessary, one could imagine that even without, the novelty of a different system complimented by the pleasures of living in Hong Kong would enchant nearly anyone, save the odd xenophobe.
Be sure to return for Part II of the review, where these pleasures of living and life in Hong Kong will be explored in greater detail.
Photo Credit: Josh Lindenbaum |
