CNews Issue 3, 2009

In an increasingly globalised world, the Faculty must reach out in order to maintain its competitiveness internationally. In terms of research collaboration, we have partnered with Stanford University, MIT and other international partners in the Creative Commons Corporation. Other international projects have been carried out with the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Asia-Pacific Business Regulation Group at Monash University, Amsterdam Centre for International Law and the Oxford University Press, as well as the OpenNet Initiative including Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and Toronto. In terms of teaching and learning, partnering up with the best universities in the world will surely further enhance our standards and quality. The Faculty has been active in collaborating with prominent overseas universities to develop joint academic programmes. A five-year double degree programme of JD and LLB was recently established with the University of British Columbia. Zurich University collaborates with us at the level of the master’s programme, which allows students to gain both the LLM from HKU and the MLaw from Zurich within two years. The double LLB programme with King’s College London (KCL) allows students to spend two years at KCL and the remaining three years at HKU to obtain the LLB from HKU and the LLB from KCL in five years. In terms of Greater China networks, the Faculty, together with prominent universities in the Mainland, Taiwan and Macau have been taking turn to organise annual conferences in respective venues to compare the different legal jurisdictions and the latest legal developments among the four places. The Faculty also holds annual or biannual symposiums with the National University of Singapore, the University of New South Wales and Peking University. It also has student exchange relationships with about 180 universities in the world. Every year, the Faculty sends about 25 per cent of its students overseas and, in return, hosts about 100 incoming exchange students from all over the world. The HKU Faculty of Law is one of the 13 founding members of the Asian Legal Institute (ASLI) which has over 40 members including prominent universities in Singapore, Australia, Japan and some US universities. The 6 th ASLI conference, which was hosted by HKU in May 2009, was regarded by all ASLI participants as setting a new high threshold for the quality of the papers presented. In 2004, the Faculty was designated by the WTO as its first official partner in Asia to run a WTO Regional Trade Policy Course (RTPC) for government officials of 31 countries in the Asia Pacific region. As the second phase of the RTPC programme, trade law experts in our Faculty have been offering training programmes in various countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, and advising their governments on trade law and policy issues. At home, the 80 academic staff of the Faculty come from 17 jurisdictions, bringing with them diverse experience and human network, and creating a truly global environment at the Faculty. A Global Law School Cover Story 12