28 November 2003

NUS, Chinese Universities To Offer Master's Degree In Chinese Law 

The National University of Singapore with two leading Chinese institutions, the East China University of Politics and Law and Peking University Law School, plan to launch a specialist LLM degree in Chinese Law, building on the expanding links between Singapore and the People’s Republic of China.

The new degree programme is expected to launch in July 2004. Applications will be open till end-February 2004. It is thought to be the first degree of its kind outside greater China.

The proposed one-year LLM coursework degree will allow law practitioners to study in depth the Chinese legal system at the NUS Faculty of Law. They will also be able to study the constitutional and administrative, criminal, corporate, foreign investment, contract, financial, trade, property, securities, intellectual property and other key laws of China under the guidance of leading faculty members from the three leading Asian universities. The degree will also have a multidisciplinary dimension as students will be able to choose from a limited number of non-law courses, including courses in Chinese language, culture, history, and politics. It will be taught primarily in English.

The Chinese Law LLM will afford English-speaking lawyers with a China-focused practice or law graduates with an interest in Chinese law, to examine and keep abreast of the rapidly evolving laws of China while studying Chinese language and culture. It will allow them not only to understand the law in its wider context, but to see first-hand its impact on regional commerce, trade, and politics.

According to Dean Tan Cheng Han of the NUS Faculty of Law: “With globalisation, it is necessary for NUS students not only to know Singapore law, but to have an understanding of other legal traditions. This specialist LLM degree in Chinese law is one of the many initiatives by the NUS law school to broaden the education of its students, particularly in areas of strategic importance to Singapore. In addition, we are delighted to be collaborating with two other leading Asian law schools to offer what will be a coursework programme of the highest quality that will be attractive not only to Singapore lawyers but to lawyers everywhere with an interest in China.”

President He Qinhua of East Chinese University of Politics and Law had the following to say about the new LLM: “At the beginning of the new millennium, Chinacontinues to blaze ahead in integrating herself into the global society. This rapid integration has prompted the need not only for China to understand the law of other countries, but also to send more young people to developed countries including Singapore to study law. At the same time, this rapid integration has created a demand for foreign lawyers to come to Chinato practise law. Shanghai, a bustling international city and China’s window to the world, is the ideal place for the establishment of a new base for cooperation. Located at the heart of Shanghaiand housing southern China’s largest law school, East China University of Politics and Law is pleased to cooperate with the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law to organise and effectively implement the LLM in Chinese Law programme.”

Dean Zhu Suli of Peking University Law School said: “In an era in which individual countries are inevitably drawing closer and closer, legal professionals are not sufficiently professional without sufficient knowledge and understanding of other legal systems. While this coursework Degree programme is itself a great effort by the three leading legal institutions in Asia to make the study of law more internationalised, it also allows legal professionals to observe the evolving Chinese legal system with not only a ‘telescope’ but a ‘microscope’. I am very much delighted to collaborate in this exciting and inaugural programmme, particularly as Peking University Law School is preparing to celebrate her Centennial.”

This specialist degree in Chinese Law is the fifth specialist LLM degree to be offered at the NUS Faculty of Law. The Faculty already offers specialist degrees in Corporate and Financial Services Law, Intellectual Property Law, and International and Comparative Law, as well as a joint degree with the University of Nottingham on International Commercial Law.

NUS, Peking University, and East China University of Politics and Law are all part of the NUS-based Asian Law Institute (ASLI), which brings together ten of the leading law schools in Asia for collaborative projects on Asian law. The LLM in Chinese Law is the first degree to be launched collaboratively by ASLI members since the inception of the institute in March 2003. The other law schools that make up ASLI are the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok), Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia (Jakarta), Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University of Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Faculty of Law, Kyushu University (Fukuoka), National Law School of India University (Bangalore), College of Law, National Taiwan University (Taipei), and the College of Law, University of the Philippines (Manila).

For more information, please contact:

Ms Chuan Chin Yee
Administrative Manager, Graduate Division
Faculty of Law, NUS
Tel: 6874 4646
E-mail:  lawccy@nus.edu.sg

Ms KHOO Bee Hoon
Media Officer
Office of Corporate Relations
National University of Singapore
Tel: (65) 6874-1526 / E-mail: ocrkbh@nus.edu.sg