Comparing Law Students' values in Hong Kong and Malaysia: two Common Law Jurisdictions in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Recent literature on legal ethics, professionalism and legal educa¬tion has shown that little work is done on studying and com¬paring the ethical values of law students in Southeast Asia. This paper reports on the empirical findings of a study on the ethical values of Hong Kong and Malaysian law students, which is part of a wider study of the values of law students in the Asian Region adapting a questionnaire from the study of values of Australian law students by Evans and Palermo (2002). The paper sought and compared the responses that Hong Kong and Malaysian law students made to eight scenarios containing different ethical dilemmas. This paper evaluates what values are empirically important in determining the decisions of law students in Hong Kong and Malaysia towards similar scenarios containing ethical dilemmas. It also compares the value orientations of law students and gen¬der differences in the value hierarchies of law students in Hong Kong and Malaysia, two common law jurisdictions in Southeast Asia. This paper is significant as it represents the first empirical legal research project undertaken on comparing the values of law students in Hong Kong and Malaysia. It contributes to academic discourse on professional socialization of law schools and value system of law students in the Asian Region, and also contributes to the teaching of legal ethics and professionalism as well as the reform of law school curriculum in the Asian Region. Acknowledgement: The research for this paper was fully sup¬ported by General Research Fund (Project No.17410914) of the Research Grants of Hong Kong