Major Research Areas
The Faculty has established, through careful planning in curriculum design and recruitment of research-active scholars from all over the world, six research strengths, as follows:

Research areas of traditional excellence:
Public Law and Human Rights
Commercial, Corporate and Financial Law
Comparative Chinese Law

New research areas of great potential:
Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law
WTO and International Economic Law
Alternative Dispute Resolution

Public Law and Human Rights
This is one of the strongest areas of the Faculty. Staff members are actively engaged in contemporary debates on comparative constitutional law, human rights, rule of law and gender issues, and significant research on these areas has been produced. Since 1999, we have offered a pioneering regional Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights, which is the only human rights law programme in Asia with a uniquely Asian focus.

Commercial, Corporate and Financial Law
The Faculty has a wealth of expertise in the commercial law area, including core common law subjects like contract, tort, property, equity, tax, credit and security, acquisition and merger, listing, banking, commercial drafting, as well as private international law and international trade and economic law. This is a diversified area but a most important one for common law education. Our Asian Institute of International Financial Law has been a focal point of our research on corporate and financial law, and has brought to Hong Kong many distinguished scholars for many highly successful public lectures and academic conferences.

Comparative Chinese Law
The Faculty has the widest range of expertise in Chinese Law outside China . Its expertise ranges from criminal law, public law, securities regulation and finance, intellectual property, to cross-border issues and legal theory and jurisprudence. Coupled with our strong common law strength, we are in a very strong position in offering comparative law research and teaching on civil law and common law. Our research on comparative Chinese law has been frequently cited in most of the quality international journals.

Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law
This is a budding area of significance in the Faculty. In terms of information technology law, the China IT & Law Centre has generated considerable research outputs and has secured major funding from the Government for a Community Legal Information Centre Project which aims to promulgating general legal knowledge to the general public. The Centre also houses the Hong Kong Legal Information Institute, which provides the public with free access to one of the best electronic databases on legal materials in Hong Kong . It is the only electronic database in Asia that provides free access to comprehensive legal information which is itself a contribution of the Faculty to the rule of law.

WTO and International Economic Law
The WTO area is a recent area of development in the Faculty, but is rapidly gaining momentum. The East Asian International Economic Law (EAIEL) programme is the focal point of training and research in this area. We have been designated by the WTO for two consecutive years as the Asia-Pacific centre for running the Regional Trade Policy Course (RTPC) for government officials from over 30 developing countries in the Asian Pacific Region. The EAIEL has also been engaged in capacity building and staff training in WTO matter in China and Indochina . It has also collaborated with various UN organs in organizing high level international conferences, including the Trade Symposium alongside the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong in December 2005.

Alternative Dispute Resolution
The Faculty is actively developing the interdisciplinary area of dispute resolution and negotiation which incorporates law, business, government, psychology, economics, anthropology, and education. We have expertise from both the Anglo-American and Mainland China background in dispute resolution, and the idea is to create a productive dialogue between rigorous research and scholarship and the competitive edge of practice in this area of great potential. As negotiation and dispute resolution is also tied to culture and values, it is our plan to develop a major dispute resolution and negotiation programme in this part of the world where there is a distinct cultural approach to such issues.

Postgraduate Admissions Advisor

Professor Chris Sherrin Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Law Email: lawpgs@hkusua.hku.hk Fax: 2559-5690