Slides for the presentation by Wilson Chow, Julienne Jen and Firew Kebede Tiba (University of Hong Kong) at LILAC10.

1. Wilson CHOW
Julienne JEN
Firew Kebede TIBA
Department of Professional Legal Education
University of Hong Kong
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2. PCLL = Postgraduate Certificate in Laws
Professional training programme
Pre-requisite for training as a trainee solicitor or
pupil barrister
Introduced in HK in 1972 and at the time was
substantially a knowledge-based course
The current HKU PCLL course -> mainly skills
based
The progress of the HKU PCLL course: a
revolution? Or an evolution?
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3. Progress = pro and gradi, meaning to walk
forward
For Spencer:
“this law of organic progress is the law of all
progress. Whether it be in the development of the
Earth, in the development of Life upon its surface,
in the development of Society, of Government, of
Manufactures, of Commerce, of Language,
Literature, Science, Art, this same evolution of the
simple into the complex, through successive
differentiations, holds throughout.”
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4. For Spencer, complete living encompasses, body,
mind, family, citizenship, and happiness and
activities required for complete living are
hierarchically arranged:
(a) activities which directly minister to self-
preservation;
(b) activities indirectly ministering to self-preservation
by the securing of necessities to life;
(c) the rearing and discipline of offspring;
(d) the maintenance of social and political relations;
(e) miscellaneous activities making up the leisure part
of life, gratifying tastes and feelings
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5. Teaching should proceed from the simple to the
complex.
Education should proceed from the indefinite to
the definite, from concrete to the abstract, and from
vagueness to exact differentiation.
Thus:
“The development of the mind, as all other development,
is an advance from the indefinite to the definite. In
common with the rest of the organism, the brain reaches
its finished structure only at maturity; and in
proportion as its structure is unfinished, its actions are
wanting in precision.”
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6. Along the same line, education must proceed
from the concrete to the abstract, following the
organization of knowledge from single facts to
general formulae; and each branch of
instruction should proceed from the empirical
to the rational to the abstraction of principles
from concrete practice.
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7. Previous curriculum: rich knowledge rich
components which were more suitable for the
academic stage.
2001 Redmond/Roper report proposed the
abolition of the same, to be substituted by a
programme which solely takes the form of
practical training in transactions and skills,
within a strong ethical context.
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8. Prior to 2001, reform to the HKU PCLL
curriculum had already taken place, albeit in a
rather piecemeal basis.
From 2001 onwards, there was a conceptual
shift of the framework of the HKU PCLL
curriculum.
The focus turned to: “how legal work is done”,
rather than structure the course around the
various subject areas.
The new HKU PCLL course aims to achieve
outcomes based learning.
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9. The reform came to its high point last year
(2008-2009 academic year), when the new HKU
PCLL course was launched, catering for the
new graduates from the new HK LLB courses
(which had just changed from 3 years to 4
years) and overseas students who had passed
the new PCLL entrance requirements.
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10. Goals: (1) provide a general professional
education by equipping students with basic
skills and knowledge to perform with
competence legal work in specified fields and (2)
provide students with a general foundation for
subsequent practice by enabling them to learn
and develop new skills in response to employer
and client needs.
The new course largely focuses on skills based
training in different subject areas with emphasis
on the transfer of such skills between the
different subject areas.
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11. In the first semester, students will learn and
practice the requisite skills in core practice
areas: property transactions, corporate and
commercial transaction, civil and criminal
litigation and professional and practice
management.
In the second semester, to meet students and
the profession’s demands, students will learn
and practice the requisite skills in the context of
3 elective subjects of their choice.
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12. The progress of the HKU PCLL course took the
form of an evolution, gradually evolving from its
simpler homogeneous phase to heterogeneity:
from a knowledge rich course to a skills based
course where the learning of such skills are
transferable between the subjects with a
diversification to cater for the needs of both
branches of the legal profession.
The building block approach followed in the
new HKU PCLL curriculum also closely follows
the Spencer’s principles moving from the simple
to the complex in its progression.
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13. What may come next in the evolution?
In Spencer’s words, the training will be more
successful if it creates a “pleasurable excitement
in the pupils”.
How can one make a professional legal training
even more exciting?
The trend: use methods that realistically
portray legal practice, e.g. the use of
simulation, online and computer based
technologies.
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