Brooklyn Law School BrooklynWorks Faculty Scholarship 2006 Clinical Legal Education in Hong Kong: A Time to Move Forward Stacy Caplow Brooklyn Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/faculty Part of the Legal Education Commons, and the Other Law Commons Recommended Citation 36 Hong Kong L. J. 229 (2006) This Response or Comment is brought to you for free and open access by BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of BrooklynWorks. COMMENT CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION IN HONG KONG: A TIME TO MOVE FORWARD Introduction Clinical education has taken root and flourished in law schools throughout the world. Although initially a United States phenomenon, universities in countries as far-flung as India, South Africa, Chile, Australia, Poland, Scotland, Cambodia, Mexico, and China have established and nurtured clinical programmes. Despite different legal systems and different institutional structures, law faculties in these disparate countries all share a respect for the potential of clinical legal education. They recognise that clinical programmes can teach law students the skills and values of the profession while contributing vital services to individuals and communities and foster- ing social justice goals. The priorities of clinical programmes may differ from school to school, and the organisation and ambitions of their respective programmes may vary, yet law schools throughout the world have found common ground in the basic characteristics that define clinical legal education. Law schools in Hong Kong have no clinical programmes - yet. This situation may change as a result of a recent initiative by the Faculty of Law at Hong Kong University (HKU).