Centre for Legal Education

We were delighted to see Yingxiang (Jo) Long at her Ph D graduation in December.  She began work with us at the beginning of 2013, so has been a fixture of the law school, and a regular attender at Association of Law Teachers and Legal Education Research Network events over several years: making many friends in the field.

Jo and her Director of Studies

Jo’s thesis, entitled Skills for Future International Commercial Lawyers: A proposal for a skills-based course in the Chinese mainland context will appear in the British Library repository in due course.  She states her contribution to knowledge as

“This project has, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, been the first to examine empirically the perceptions of Chinese and non-Chinese lawyers about the skills currently needed to work in international commercial practice. The project is also unique in considering a wide range of educational theories and options for vocational courses. In contrast with some Chinese legal educators, the researcher has investigated the vocational courses of England and Wales and Hong Kong as possible models rather than automatically defaulting to the US JD as a solution. The thesis, ultimately rejects the idea that a simple transplant of, for example, the PCLL or JD will address the social, professional and economic needs of mainland China as it develops in the international trade arena. The contribution to knowledge represented by this thesis, then is a unique understanding of the needs of Chinese international commercial lawyers in particular and in the context of their cultural and educational background, and in making recommendations for a new evidence-based curriculum which will assist them to compete more successfully in the future with their Anglo-American peers.”

We congratulate Jo and wish her all the best in her future career.  You can see Jo at her graduation ceremony (about 69 minutes into the recording) here or download the recording here.