What are Law Courses for? Striking a Balance between Professional and Liberal Education Goals

Abstract

The debate over whether legal education should focus more on professional training or on broader liberal education goals is one which has been argued back and forth for decades.

Drawing on eight years of experience running the largest sub-degree law programme in Hong Kong as a senior programme director at HKU SPACE, the author highlights how professional regulatory requirements may not always accord with broader academic goals.

Where these conflict, he argues that the answer is not to abandon either the professional or broader goals but instead seeks ways of accomodating both to the maximum extent possible. Indeed the Hong Kong experience suggests that one solution is to offer different intakes within the same programme, with some placing greater emphasis on immediate professional goals than others.