CityU spearheads Commonwealth legal education conference

The School of Law (SLW) of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) held the global business law education conference, “Teaching Law in the Modern Global Business Environment”, at CityU from 31 March to 2 April. More than 50 law scholars and teachers from all parts of the Commonwealth attended the conference to exchange their perspectives on law and ideas on teaching and research.

Inauguration guests at the conference are Professor David Mcquoid-Mason, President of CLEA; The Hon Mr Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, Chief Judge of the High Court, Professor Richard Ho Yan-ki, Provost of CityU; Professor Wang Guiguo, Dean of SLW and Professor Anthony Cooray, Associate Dean of SLW and the Conference Chairman.

Professor Wang Guiguo said, “I am very pleased that so many outstanding experts from around the world are converging on the CityU Law School to share their experience of law and legal education in their own countries. This conference is not just about law teaching. More importantly, it is also about the development and refinement of legal education to meet the challenges of globalisation.”

Justice Geoffrey Ma was the Chief Guest and delivered an inaugural address entitled “In Pursuit of the Unattainable,” while Justice Kemal Bokhary, Senior Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal, delivered the first of the academic addresses, “The Ombudsman’s Role: Judicial Perspectives.” Professor Richard Ho, who declared the conference open, spoke of the importance of continuing dialogue among academics to learn from their experience.

The conference saw senior law academics from several countries,

including the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, South Africa and India, discussing new methods of teaching law as well as problems regarding plagiarism and assessment. It also addressed contemporary legal issues, such as good governance, anti-corruption measures, corporate responsibility and Islamic finance.

Dr Ros Macdonald, Director of Graduate Law Programmes of Queensland University of Technology, Australia, who has been associated with the Commonwealth Legal Education for many years, said the conference was by far the best CLEA conference she had attended. Mr Aldo Zammit-Borda, Legal Editor of the Commonwealth Secretariat, commended the CityU Law School for bringing together such a diverse community of legal scholars and hoped for continued institutional cooperation.

Professor Gavin Drewry, Royal Holloway University of London, said: “As a non-lawyer political scientist with an interest in legal institutions, I was particularly struck by the inter-disciplinary breadth of the discussions. The conference strongly underlined the important truth that good law teaching in universities must always be set in broader social and political contexts.”