Legal language

Ever since they identified in last year's interim report that poor English was a major defect among recent law graduates, the two Australian experts brought in to overhaul Hong Kong's legal education had been expected to propose higher language requirements for law students.

Yet, one could argue that tougher rules will make no difference in practice, as the SAR's two law schools have already been admitting mostly students who have achieved a grade C or above in Use of English - the very requirement the Australians have proposed.

In fact, the more pertinent question is why, despite their higher-than-average English skills, some of our law graduates have failed to develop the sophisticated legal communication skills that were the hallmark of their predecessors a generation ago. But although the consultants did not ask that question, they have virtually provided an answer by recommending a revamp of the lecture-and-tutorial teaching methods employed by our law schools.

Twenty or 30 years ago, such methods might have been effective, as law students then were among the creme de la creme , who had been educated in secondary schools that genuinely used English as the teaching medium. Regrettably, such schools have become fewer and fewer in number. And even their best graduates who managed to achieve good grades in English still needed much more nurturing to develop the superb language skills required of lawyers.

The consultants' recommendations are that the law schools adopt a more interactive teaching method and make students' participation in class part of their assessment. That is certainly the right recipe. Only by requiring our students, who do not speak English as their first tongue, to start honing their presentation and argumentative skills as early as possible would they stand a chance of competing with counterparts who grew up speaking English or were educated overseas.

While no one denies the need to upgrade the existing system, the manner of the changes has stirred up discontent. The consultants propose to extend the existing law programme from three to four years, and to scrap the present Postgraduate Certificate in Law. They also want the law schools to introduce five-year programmes that allow students to integrate their legal studies with education in another discipline.