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CityU School of Law Dean Prof. Tan Cheng Han and CCCL Director Prof. Wang Jiangyu Interviewed by HK01 on the Role of Hong Kong Law Schools in Legal Research and Education Reform in Hong Kong
In early January of 2021, the Dean of the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) Prof. Tan Cheng Han and Director of the Centre for Chinese and Comparative Law (CCCL) of CityU School of Law Prof. Wang Jiangyu were interviewed by HK01 — a Hong Kong-based online news portal — on the role of Hong Kong’s law schools in Hong Kong’s legal research and education reform.
During the interview, when responding to the question as to the role of law schools, CityU School of Law Dean Prof. Tan Cheng Han was of the opinion that a law school should balance its role “locally” and “internationally”. As far as its local role is concerned, since a law school has close connection with the jurisdiction in which it is located, it therefore has the obligation to serve the local community. In other words, Hong Kong’s law schools have the obligation to train lawyers that are needed for Hong Kong’s legal market. As to a law school’s international role, since it is a member of the international community, it therefore should also serve the international community and become part of the international dialogue. This means that Hong Kong’s law schools should help the international community to understand the position of Hong Kong’s legal system at international level, and at the same time enhance the knowledge of themselves, the Hong Kong legal community, as well as the Hong Kong society as whole, with regard to the approaches different jurisdictions adopt in handling various legal issues.
Besides, Prof. Tan considered that, given the fact that Hong Kong law sch ools have been enjoying a good international reputation, and Hong Kong’s geographic advantage also makes it the central place for Chinese legal studies, there is no doubt that Hong Kong has all the necessary conditions to own one of the most significant law schools in the world, and this is also the goal of CityU School of Law. In fact, CityU School of Law’s CCCL has long been a pioneer in Chinese law research internationally. Additionally, Prof. Tan pointed out that, as China’s international influence continues to increase and China’s legal development keeps accelerating, demand for Hong Kong lawyers who are proficient in both common law and Chinese law in the legal market would definitely increase. Thus, CityU School of Law would endeavor to nurture this kind of professionals.
With regard to the pressure faced by Hong Kong’s universities as a result of the adoption of “internationalization” by the University Grant Council (UGC) as the assessment criteria in its research assessment exercise (RAE), Prof. Tan expressed that as a Law Dean he would not give too much emphasis on that criteria. Instead, he only concerns about recruiting the outstanding academics for the Law School and providing a good research environment — such as setting a broad research direction for the Law School, providing seed funds for colleagues to start their research, encouraging colleagues to collaborate with scholars of other disciplines to conduct cross-disciplinary research and to establish partnerships with outstanding researchers in the world, etc. — for colleagues to demonstrate their potentials to the greatest extent. With respect to the research of Law School colleagues, Prof. Tan explained that he would respect colleagues’ academic freedom to the greatest extent, and thus he would only give a broad research direction instead of imposing pressure on colleagues because of RAE or other reasons.
CCCL Director Prof. Wang Jiangyu started his interview by talking about Hong Kong’s contribution to China’s legal development. He pointed o ut that, for the past three or four decades, the laws of China have developed from their original simple and rudimentary rules into a sophisticated and complicated legal system with rather comprehensive and highly technical rules. During this legal moderni zation process, Hong Kong has played a significant role, for example, in facilitating the transplantation of Western laws into the Chinese legal system through legal exchange between Hong Kong and mainland China in academic and market contexts.
As Prof. Wang argued, several advantages, including the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement, Hong Kong’s strategical geographical location in China and the world, and the strong international background of the legal scholars and lawyers in Hong Kong, have sustained the irreplaceable role of Hong Kong’s legal academia in serving as a bridge between Chinese law and the international community. On the one hand, unlike legal scholars in mainland China whose legal research are subject to restrictions on various aspects (such as the academic training they received, the macro political environment, research purpose and research methodologies, etc.), Hong Kong’s legal scholars are capable of interpreting, analyzing and promoting Chinese law by using internationally accepted methods. On the other hand, the rich international elements of Hong Kong law schools’ programmes and the international and comparative research carried out by Hong Kong’s legal scholars also help meet the strong demand for comparative legal studies in mainland China — especially the demand for overseas experience with respect to newly emerged legal issues (such as legal liabilities of automatic driving and artificial intelligence, and regulation of crowdfunding, etc.).
On the role of CCCL, Prof. Wang further observed that, as a research institution established in Hong Kong, CCCL also hopes to contribute to legal research centered upon issues which are relevant to and significant for Hong Kong, and to assist in clarifying Hong Kong’s status and promoting Hong Kong’s influence and contribution to building the rule of law in China. Hence, the study of Hong Kong’s past, present and future role in the process of China’s legal system development has been set to be one of CCCL’s key research focus.
With regard to the research direction and assessment criteria for Hong Kong’s legal academia, Prof. Wang pointed out that UGC should not only use internationalization as the sole assessment criteria in its RAE and ignore the local resources and local issues. On the contrary, he was of the opinion that more attention should be given to local knowledge and research questions. Hong Kong should better utilize its advantages of being a place with a unique position to examine China -related legal issues as well as to study Hong Kong’s local issues from comparative and international perspectives because this is the value in which Hong Kong is vested.
For the full-text of the relevant reports (in Chinese only), see: https://www.hk01.com/周報/573285/司法改革-一-如何令普通法與-一國兩制-相適應; https://www.hk01.com/周報/573308/司法改革-二-如何令法律研究善用本港優勢-告 別-狗尾續貂; https://www.hk01.com/周報/573536/司法改革-三-香港法學如何突破偽國際化-困局; https://www.hk01.com/周報/573544/司法改革-四-來自國外的法學院 院長-如何化挑戰為動力.
2021 年 1 月初，香港城市大學法律學院(以下簡稱「城大法律學院」)院長陳清漢教 授及中國法與比較法研究中心(以下簡稱「CCCL」)主任王江雨教授接受香港網上新 聞媒體「香港 01」訪問，探討於近日在香港社會備受爭議的香港法律研究及教育改 革問題方面，香港的法律學院所擔當的角色。
在訪問中被問及有關法律學院應擔當的角色，城大法律學院院長陳清漢教授認為， 法律學院應在「本地」和「全球」之間做好平衡。在「本地」方面，由於法律學院 與其所在的司法管轄區緊密相連，所以法律學院具有服務本地社區的責任。因此就 香港而言，香港的法律學院需要培育適合在香港法律市場執業的律師; 在「全球」方 面，由於法律學院是國際社區的一員，因此亦應為國際社區服務，成為國際對話的 一部份，讓國際社會了解香港的法律體系在國際層面的位置，同時加深香港法律學 院自身、香港法律界，以至香港社會對不同司法管轄區處理各種法律問題的不同手 法的認識。
同時，他認為基於香港的法律學院一直在國際上的良好聲譽，以及香港的地理優勢 造就香港成為中國法律研究中心，香港絕對有條件打造出世界上最好的法學院，而 這亦是城大法律學院的目標，其屬下的 CCCL 更早已成為全球領先的中國法研究中 心。而在中國於國際上的影響力日漸提升、中國法的發展不斷加快的情況下，法律 服務市場對同時精通普通法和中國法的香港律師的需求亦必然將會增加，因此城大 法律學院亦會致力培訓相關人才。
至於在面對大學教育資助委員會 (以下簡稱「教資會」) 以「國際化」作為「研究評審 工作」(RAE) 的評核標準對學界造成的壓力，陳院長坦言自己並不會過於考慮有關 標準。他指出自己只會考慮僱用優秀的人才、提供一個良好的研究環境讓學院同事 可以最大程度發揮他們的潛力，包括為城大法律學院設定廣泛的研究方向、為法律 2 學院同事的研究提供種子資金、鼓勵同事與其他學科的學者進行合作研究及與國際 上優秀的研究人員建立夥伴關係等。對於學院同事們的研究，他亦會最大程度尊重 同事的學術自由，只會給出一個大方向而不會就 RAE 或其他因素向同事施加任何壓 力。
CCCL 主任王江雨教授在訪問中首先談及香港對中國法律發展的貢獻。他指出，中 國法在過去三、四十年間已由原本粗疏的簡單規範發展成今天相當完善和技術化的 龐大而複雜的法律體系。而在這個法制現代化過程中，香港扮演了相當重要的角 色，例如中國法中對英國法律的「移植」，就是透過中港兩地在香港的學術領域及 市場上的法律交流而進行的。
事實上，在學術領域方面，基於「一國兩制」政策和香港在中國及國際上的「得天 獨厚」地理優勢，再加上香港法律學者的國際化背景，香港的法律學術界在作為中 國法與國際社會之間的橋樑的地位實在不可代替: 一方面，有別於內地法律學者在中 國法研究方面受到學術訓練、政治大環境及研究目的、研究方法等限制，香港法律 學者能以國際上所能接受的表達方式，去解釋、解構、解讀、推廣中國法律; 另一方 面，基於內地對比較法的強大需求 — 尤其在新興法律問題 (例如自動駕駛、人工智 能、眾籌等) 的國外法律經驗方面，香港法律學院提供的法律課程和香港法律學者的 國際化及比較法研究亦正好能在相關方面服務內地。
有鑑於此，王教授表示，作為一個設立於香港的研究機構，CCCL 亦希望能對香港 本地的研究有所貢獻，協助釐清香港的地位和確定香港對中國法律的影響和貢獻， 所以香港在中國法制建設過程中已經發揮和所能夠發揮的作用將會是 CCCL 未來的 其中一個重點研究課題。
就有關香港法律學術界的研究方向和指標的問題，王教授直言，教資會的 RAE 不應 將「國際化」作為「唯一」標準而忽視本土的資源和議題; 反之，他認為要對本土的 知識、資源給予關注，香港應該抓住自己的優勢，用國際化的視角，站在獨特的位 置探討整個中國的問題，或扎根本土研究香港本地議題，這才是香港的價值所在。