How a cutting-edge law degree prepares graduates for the 21st-century workplace
City University of Hong Kong is future-proofing graduate employment with Juris Doctor courses that give students a comprehensive grounding in common law and the critical thinking skills needed to apply it in practice
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AI can draft legal documents from templates and sift through reams of files in search of keywords and insights. However, placing these findings into context, understanding how law is practised and how it might evolve, still requires the unique judgement of the human mind. The School of Law at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is dedicated to training future lawyers and legal scholars who understand and uphold the values that underpin law.
Recent developments in AI have put entry-level positions in various professions at risk. However, there are still ample opportunities for graduates who can demonstrate high-level skills, comparative analysis, policy expertise and the ability to think critically about technology-driven outputs, says Daniel Pascoe, Juris Doctor programme director at CityUHK’s School of Law. “That is what we are trying to instil in our graduates. We want students to consider the way the law has developed over time and where it might be going. We want students who can situate the law in a set of values and think about what collective purposes might be underlying it.”
CityUHK’s Juris Doctor programme is an intensive first law degree offered to students who are graduates in a non-law discipline or from civil law legal systems. It adopts a trans-systemic approach to teaching common law, enabling learners to study Hong Kong law in a comparative context alongside other jurisdictions such as England and Wales, Australia, the US and mainland China. The programme welcomes students from a variety of academic backgrounds and offers a fast-tracked postgraduate pathway to a legal career or a leadership role in government, private and non-profit sectors in Hong Kong and abroad.
The Juris Doctor degree is taught by a team of faculty members representing around 14 nationalities with hands-on experience of different legal jurisdictions. “That means students get exposure not only to different legal traditions but also different cultures and ways of thinking,” says Pascoe.
Most of CityUHK’s faculty members are active researchers, so their teaching is guided by research. “We incorporate insights from our research work into the way we teach courses,” says Pascoe. “For example, we set readings from the latest articles in the field and ask students to consider those ideas critically.”
Human skills such as communication, writing, body language and tone of voice are essential for success in the legal profession. In addition to technical knowledge, the Juris Doctor programme incorporates practical components to develop students’ skills. “Students are asked to persuade the professors of their interpretation of the law through written or oral submissions, just as they would do in a courtroom,” says Pascoe. This gives students the foundational expertise to understand law and the skills required to practise it.
Find out more about the School of Law at City University of Hong Kong.