University of Hong Kong law faculty marks 50 years with book recalling its humble beginnings, when few students dared to enrol
- Pioneer batch of 40 law students had no idea if their degree would let them practise
- Proving early doubters wrong, faculty is now among the world’s top 20 law schools
When the University of Hong Kong’s first 40 law students began classes in September 1969, nobody imagined that their tiny department would one day be listed among the 20 top law schools in the world.
Dafydd Evans, first head of the department, described the pioneer batch as “a brave bunch” because they had no guarantee that their Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree would be accepted as a qualification for practising law in Hong Kong or anywhere else.
Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a member of the Executive Council and former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, was among those 23 men and 17 women who were HKU’s first law graduates.
Among his classmates were Andrew Liao Cheung-sing, went on to become a senior counsel and an executive council member during Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying’s tenures as chief executive, and Moses Cheng Mo-chi, who became chairman of the Education Commission from 2009 to 2015.
The law faculty is marking its 50th anniversary this year, with a gala dinner on November 24 and a commemorative book by historian Christopher Munn to be released this month.
The book, A Special Standing in the World: The Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, 1969–2019, tells the story of the tiny law department’s growth in the context of historic changes in Hong Kong, highlighting contributions by faculty members and alumni to the city’s development over half a century.