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The history of legal education in Hong Kong is a history of reform. The various inflection points along its story—the establishment of each of the three law schools, the development of the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) and its role in the legal profession, the Redmond–Roper Report and its aftermath—all demonstrate an effort to develop a legal system appropriate to the specific context of Hong Kong. This article traces these developments with a view to providing further insight into ongoing reviews about the structure of legal education in the territory.

In 2001 the Redmond–Roper Report on Legal Education and Training in Hong Kong outlined major concerns relating to the quality of legal education in Hong Kong, particularly with respect to the overemphasis on black-letter law, teaching methodology that engendered passive learning and a general deficiency in equipping graduates with the legal skills and values necessary to address the needs of the community. Taking the position that fostering civic engagement in curriculum design provides an excellent means to address these concerns, this article examines key initiatives adopted by the Faculty of Law at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. First is an innovative course known as ‘The Individual, the Community and the Law’ which is compulsory for all law students and requires them to undertake a substantial socio-legal research project addressing concerns in the local community. Second is the ‘Refugee Assistance Programme’, a clinic programme that puts students in positions of responsibility to address the unmet legal needs of refugees in Hong Kong. This article will describe the design of these programmes and assess how far these initiatives are able to foster civic engagement and in turn address the concerns of Redmond–Roper.