Deep Profile: Faculty of Law (Hong Kong's Oldest Law School)

Module: 01 Academic · Deep Profile Last updated: 2026-06-15 This piece traces the history, institutional structure, and curriculum of HKU's Faculty of Law — the oldest law school in Hong Kong. For a faculty-level overview, see faculties.md.

# 1. History: From a Department within Social Sciences to an Independent Faculty

Legal education at HKU predates the formal establishment of the Department of Law in 1969, but for decades it occupied a marginal institutional position. According to Wikipedia^※, the University had been offering law-related courses since the 1920s and 1930s, yet law was taught merely as a component within the Bachelor of Arts (Arts degree)—not as an independent academic unit. It took nearly another forty years for legal education to gain proper departmental status at HKU. This "pre-history" shows that the Department's founding in 1969 was not a start "from zero," but rather the institutional consolidation of decades of scattered legal teaching.

According to the HKU Faculty of Law's official history^※ and its Wikipedia entry^※:

• Founding Head: According to Wikipedia, Professor Dafydd Evans (seconded from the London School of Economics, LSE) served as the founding Head of Department and later Dean until 1987. He was awarded an OBE in 1989 for his services to legal education.
• Wikipedia notes that when the HKU Law Department opened, "few students dared to enrol"—a detail from its scrappy beginnings later recorded in the 50th-anniversary faculty history (Christopher Munn, 1969–2019) published by HKU Press.

# The Origins of Hong Kong's Legal Practice Qualification

• The LLB (three-year Bachelor of Laws) and the PCLL (from 1972 onwards) were, according to the faculty history, the first local university qualifications recognised for direct entry into legal practice; Wikipedia describes the PCLL as "Hong Kong's first complete local pathway to professional training."
• HKU also produced Hong Kong's first Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD in Law) — according to HKU Faculty of Law^※, Peter Wesley-Smith was HKU's first PhD graduate in law.

# 2. Present-Day Structure

Traditionally, the Faculty comprised two departments, as noted in the HKU Faculty of Law's official history^※:

According to Wikipedia, these two departments were integrated into a unitary structure from 2024 onwards. The Faculty also houses several research centres, most notably the Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL), founded in 1995—an important platform for public law research according to the CCPL official site^※.

Current Dean: Professor Fu Hualing (傅華伶) (Warren Chan Professor in Human Rights and Responsibilities; re-appointment announced publicly for a second term beginning November 2025).

# 3. Programme Portfolio

Per Wikipedia, the JD is an intensive programme designed for those without a first degree in law; the PCLL is one of the mandatory steps on the pathway to qualifying as a solicitor or barrister in Hong Kong.

# 4. Scale and Influence

According to the HKU Faculty of Law's Wikipedia entry^※:

In terms of influence on the judiciary and legal profession, the Wikipedia entry states that the Faculty has produced a substantial proportion of Hong Kong's senior counsel, along with numerous top government legal officials and judicial figures. Per the Wikipedia entry^※, the Faculty's alumni community includes the incumbent Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal, three permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal, three Secretaries for Justice, and roughly one-third of the senior counsel community; more than twenty former members of the Executive and Legislative Councils are also HKU Law alumni. The entry further notes that over half of the judges at all levels of the High Court are graduates of the Faculty. In a 2024 speech at the Faculty's 55th Anniversary celebration^※, the Honourable Mr Justice Ribeiro, Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, noted that since its founding in 1969, the Faculty has grown into an institution of central importance within Hong Kong's legal professional training system.

Per the biographies of living persons (BLP) and division of editorial labour on this site, entries concerning specific incumbent judicial or government figures are handled in relevant modules. This piece presents only aggregate, institutional-level facts and does not name incumbent officials.

# 5. International Rankings: Movements on the QS Subject Table

HKU's Faculty of Law has long been a fixture near the top of the QS World University Rankings by Subject (Law and Legal Studies). According to an official Faculty newsletter^※, the Faculty was ranked 15th globally in the 2025 QS subject rankings. Per an HKU press release^※, in the subsequent 2026 QS subject rankings, its position adjusted to 20th globally. Year-on-year fluctuations of this order (15th → 20th) are hardly unusual under QS's subject-ranking methodology — shifts between annual cycles are often influenced by minor weight adjustments to indicators, changes in peer review samples, and other factors, and do not necessarily reflect a substantive rise or fall in teaching and research quality. The rankings here are reported as stated in official sources for each respective year; for methodological critiques, see ranking-methodology-and-critiques.md.

Whatever the short-term fluctuations, HKU's Faculty of Law has for many years held steady within the world's top 20–25 law schools, making it one of the most consistently ranked of all HKU faculties and one of the most frequently cited in the University's promotional materials.

# 6. Gaps / To Be Supplemented

• Precise latest student/staff numbers: Available figures vary by reporting year. This article uses the year-labelled data from Wikipedia; the most authoritative source is the Faculty's latest annual report.
• Details of the 2024 "unitary structure" integration: Internal arrangements are subject to the Faculty's official page — noted here as "subject to official page."
• Entries touching on university governance / rule-of-law controversies: Per the editorial division, these fall under modules 13–18 and are not expanded upon here.