Postgraduate options for studying law in Hong Kong continue to grow following the establishment of the territory's third law school at Chinese University (CUHK) in 2005.
Besides its Juris Doctor (JD), Joint JD/MBA degree, Master of Laws (LLM) in Chinese business law, common law and international economic law, CUHK also offers a Master of Philosophy of Law (MPhil), Doctor of Philosophy of Law (PhD) and Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL).
Similarly, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) offers comparable degrees including seven taught postgraduate LLM programmes, among them arbitration and dispute resolution, which was introduced in 2007. HKU's law school was the first in Hong Kong to introduce an LLM more than 20 years ago and now offers it in Chinese law, corporate and financial law, human rights, information technology and intellectual property law (IT/IP), and common law.
The university also offers four taught postgraduate diploma programmes in commercial law, IT/IP, public law and Chinese law.
According to Douglas Arner, director of the LLM (Corporate & Financial Law) programme at HKU, the programmes provide students with the opportunity to either pursue a broad range of courses or to specialise deeply in one area. He said the course structure provides flexibility for students from different backgrounds to structure their programmes to meet their needs.
About one-third of the students at HKU's Faculty of Law come from Hong Kong, one-third from the mainland and one-third from overseas. Most of the part-time students are working full time in legal or related fields such as finance, commerce, IT/IP and human rights.