School of Law forges links with universities in Hong Kong and Beijing
Birkbeck has entered into partnerships with Shue Yan University, Hong Kong, and Tsinghua University, Beijing
The School of Law at Birkbeck has entered into partnerships with Shue Yan University, Hong Kong, and Tsinghua University, Beijing. Matthew Weait, Birkbeck’s Pro-Vice-Master for Academic Partnerships and Professor of Law and Policy (pictured, right), represented the School of Law at the inauguration of these initiatives at Shue Yan University on 30 November.
The new Trans-jurisdictional Legal Theory and Policy Research Centre, hosted at Shue Yan University, is a major part of the collaboration. This Centre will enable scholars from the three universities to develop comparative research projects and visit each other’s institutions to teach. The other element is an agreement to admit up to 15 students per year from Shue Yan University onto the School of Law’s Qualifying Law Degree (LLM) programme.
The launch of the collaboration included a lecture by Paul Chung – one of the most senior legal practitioners in Hong Kong and a donor to the Centre, and the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement. Speaking afterwards, Professor Weait said:“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for all three universities. Hong Kong and China are going through periods of unprecedented legal transformation. The research Centre will provide an invaluable and unique resource for academics to learn from each other, understand those changes, and enrich their scholarship. We are particularly fortunate to have secured the agreement to send students from Shue Yan to the School of Law. Their interest in the English legal system, and English legal culture, is enormous and I know they will make a wonderful contribution to the intellectual life of the School.”