Wilson CHOWJulienne JEN

Firew Kebede TIBADepartment of Professional Legal Education

University of Hong Kong

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PCLL = Postgraduate Certificate in LawsProfessional training programmePre-requisite for training as a trainee solicitor or pupil barristerIntroduced in HK in 1972 and at the time was substantially a knowledge-based courseThe current HKU PCLL course -> mainly skills basedThe progress of the HKU PCLL course: a revolution? Or an evolution?

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Progress = pro and gradi, meaning to walk forwardFor 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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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 feelings4

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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