The School of Law (SLW) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) held a video-link seminar with Yale Law School at 9:30am on 19 February (Hong Kong time). It was the first virtual seminar conducted by both schools. Professor Michael Reisman, Myres S. McDougal Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and a member of CityU’s SLW International Advisory Board, was guest speaker. The virtual seminar is indicative of CityU’s global outlook and continuing pursuit of excellence.

The virtual seminar was a pilot run of SLW’s initiative to invite renowned professors from prestigious law schools to teach its students. It is also an important step in delivering world-class legal education to CityU students. SLW’s principal objective is to support and improve legal education and training in Hong Kong, and to provide students with a global perspective and learning experience in the study of law.

“Through such virtual seminars, it is easier for SLW to get world-class professors to teach our students. Otherwise, such distinguished scholars might not be able to spend time with us, given their busy schedules. This also means that our students will have the opportunity to learn from world-class professors, without having to leave the CityU campus. We hope this project will eventually develop into a situation whereby our students could sit in on classes of Yale, Oxford and other top law schools and interact with their students,” said Professor (Chair) Wang Guiguo, Dean of SLW.

“This is a historic moment for the creation of a virtual university in the globalised world,” said Professor Reisman at the start of the seminar. He then delivered a talk entitled Law Teaching Skills and Methodology and shared his valuable experience with his teaching counterparts in Hong Kong. The seminar was highly interactive with a lively exchange of views on teaching law.

Professor Reisman has agreed to teach a course on a weekly basis through video conferencing in the coming academic year. SLW has also invited two professors from the University of Oxford to teach in Semester A, 2008/09. They are Professor Roger Hood, Emeritus Professor of Criminology, and Professor Adrian Zuckerman, Professor of Civil Procedure.