Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) Symposium on New Challenges and New Opportunities in Legal Education (27–28 April 2021)

Legal education is going through a transformative period due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Few classes and assessments are currently being held in a face-to-face format. Rather, the majority of classes and assessments are being conducted online. At some point in time, COVID-19 will no longer be an impediment to face-to-face interactions in legal education. However, in the interim, lessons will have been learned about the types of innovative face-to-face learning, online learning and hybrid learning methods that have proved effective and can be best utilised in the post-COVID teaching and learning era.

                                                                                                                                 Mr Jack BURKE and Ms Anna LUI (from left to right) 

In order to encourage scholars to share their experiences in developing these innovative practices and to bring legal education forward into the new millennium, the first Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) Symposium entitled “New Challenges and New Opportunities in Legal Education” was co-hosted by two ALSA member institutions, the School of Law of Jilin University (JilinU) and CityU School of Law on 27 and 28 April 2021.    

Welcome speeches by Prof HE Zhipeng (left) and Prof TAN Cheng-Han (right)

The Symposium formally kicked off with welcoming remarks by Prof HE Zhipeng (Dean, JilinU School of Law) who expressed his honour on behalf of JilinU School of Law for having the opportunity to co-organise the Symposium with CityU School of Law. He believed that JilinU School of Law shared the same understanding with CityU School of Law that Asian law schools should have more opportunities to exchange ideas and to communicate with each other on how to promote legal education. He also emphasised that law schools all over the world share the same aims of educating more and more students in law, enhancing our education curriculum, improving our teaching methodology and learning from other law schools and international legal education organisations. Prof He pointed out that in this new era, three elements played an important role in legal education: the etiquette of internet communication, the establishment of closer linkage between legal issues, globalisation and deglobalisation, and cultural diversity. He invited all legal scholars to think about ways to improve legal education in the political context, and that this Symposium was a very good start to promote communication among law schools.

Following the welcoming remarks of Prof He, Prof TAN Cheng-Han, SC (Dean and Chair Professor of Commercial Law, CityU School of Law) also welcomed all participants to the first academic symposium hosted by ALSA and expressed his pleasure to be able to co-organise this Symposium with JilinU School of Law. As a new association, he considered that this first scholarly event was an important start for ALSA. Being made up of 22 leading Asian law schools, ALSA intends to expand its membership over time to all Asian law schools, with the goal of becoming the voice for all law schools in Asia. Turning to the theme of the Symposium, Prof Tan said that the last 15 months of the pandemic had forced universities and all of us out of our comfort zone, and pushed us to find a solution to the restrictions caused by COVID-19. CityU School of Law is committed to improving the use of technology and has recently won a grant from the Hong Kong University Grant’s Council to support a research project on “Global Classrooms” which will help the school to usher in Online Learning 2.0. He also expressed his gratitude to all presenters for being part of the Symposium, and in particular to Mr Jack BURKE (Senior Teaching Fellow, CityU School of Law) and Ms Anna LUI (Teaching Fellow, CityU School of Law), Prof HE Zhipeng and his colleagues for making this Symposium a reality, as well as to all participants for their confidence in ALSA.

Twenty-one guest speakers conducted presentations addressing a wide range of topics relating to the theme of the Symposium. The Symposium consisted of five sessions, each followed by a Q & A session.  The topics of the presentations were as follows (according to the order of presentation).

Session 1 (Moderator: Prof HE Zhipeng):

• Keynote speaker: Dr Kate GALLOWAY (Associate Professor, Griffith Law School), “Publishing Legal Education Research: Influencing The Future”.

• Dr Kelley BURTON (LEAD Co-convenor, School of Law and Society, University of the Sunshine Coast), Mr Julian LAURENS (LEAD Senior Project Officer), Ms Judith MARYCHURCH (LEAD Co-convenor Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne), and Dr Michael NANCARROW (LEAD Co-convenor until July 2020, Consultant and sessional academic, Macquarie Law School, Macquarie University), “Student Evaluations of Teaching During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Law Academics Advocating for Alternate Measures of Teaching Quality”.

• Dr Helena WHALEN-BRIDGE (Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore), “Legal Ethics in Law School: Challenges and Opportunities”.

Session 2 (Moderator: Mr Jack BURKE)

• Prof Joel LEE Tye Beng (Professor, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore), “Teaching Practical Legal Skills: Principles, Pedagogy and Pitfalls”.

• Dr Elena SYCHENKO (Associate Professor, Saint Petersburg State University), “Digital Tools for Students’ Engagement in Law Classes”.

• Dr Elena SHERSTOBOEVA (Assistant Professor, School of Creative Media, School of Law, CityU) and Ms Maria DUBROVINA (Student, School of Communication, Media and Design, Higher School of Economics), “New Approach to Teaching Law to Creative Media and Art Students in the Digital Era”.

		Moderator & Speakers of Session 2: First row: Mr Jack BURKE; Prof Joel LEE Tye Beng; Dr Elena SYCHENKO (from left to right) Second row from left: Dr Elena SHERSTOBOEVA; Ms Maria DUBROVINA (from left to right)

Session 3 (Moderator: Dr HE Tianxiang, Assistant Professor, CityU School of Law)

• Mr Robert CHALMERS (Lecturer, Flinders University), “Innovating the Law”.

• Mr Mark L SHOPE (Assistant Professor of Law, School of Law, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University), “The User Interface: An Analysis of Various Qualities of Technology in the Virtual Classroom”.

• Dr Aleksei DOLZHIKOV (Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, St. Petersburg State University), “Case-method in Legal Education vs. Critical Legal Studies in Russia”.

• Prof Anna ROZENTSVAIG (Head of the Internal Control Department, Samara National Research University), “Legal Education in Russia: New Prospects and New Challenges”.

Session 4 (Moderator: Dr CHOW Pok Yin Stephenson, Assistant Professor, CityU School of Law):

• Dr Daniel PASCOE (Associate Professor, CityU School of Law), “Criminal Law Syllabus and the Realities of Legal Practice in Hong Kong”.

• Mr Shaun McCARTHY (Director of the University of Newcastle Legal Centre and Program Convenor of the Practical Legal Training Program, The University of Newcastle Law School) and Dr Bin LI (Lecturer, The University of Newcastle Law School), “Supporting Future Legal Professionals for the Digital Era: The Role of Technology in Legal Education”

• Mr Jack BURKE, “Show and Tell: Use of Innovative Teaching Methodologies in a Law School Practical Legal Training Programme”.

Session 5 (Moderator: Dr Daniel PASCOE):

• Ms Carolina FABARA (Lawyer of the Courts of Justice of the Republic of Ecuador by the University of the Americas), “New Challenges and New Opportunities in Legal Education (Online) Global Lawyers”.

• Dr LIM Lei Theng (Partner at Allen & Gledhill LLP), “Learning to Serve and Serving While Learning: Clinical Legal Education at the NUS Faculty of Law 2008 to 2020”.

• Dr Christoph HAFNER (Associate Professor, Department of English, CityU), “Mooting Interactions: What Is Going On Here and What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”.

The Symposium ended with the closing remarks of Prof HE Zhipeng and Mr Jack BURKE. Prof HE Zhipeng found the two-day Symposium fruitful and thought-provoking, as many topics showed that it is necessary for legal educators to communicate and to share their experiences. He also thanked CityU and JilinU for organising this event and thanked the participants for sharing their thoughts. In particular, the insightful views of all the speakers who are experts in the field of legal education served as an important foundation for further discussions on legal education.

Mr Burke announced that ALSA was planning to create a chapter in legal education and he expected that ALSA would make an announcement in this regard in the near future. The Chapter will seek to promote academic exchanges through the creation of a Discussion Board and future conferences, hopefully, in person, in the not too far distant future. Mr Burke also thanked Dr Kate GALLOWAY for her keynote address which set an important tone in stimulating high-level scholarship in global legal education. Finally, he noted the excellent quality of the presentations and encouraged presenters to submit articles to the Legal Education Review which would like to publish a special edition of that journal to memorialise the best papers from this ALSA Symposium.