Angus Young and Grace Li on Technological Disruption as an Agent of Change in Legal Education? Surprises, Disappointments and Experimentations in Australia and Hong Kong (The Law Teacher)

"Technological disruption as an agent of change in legal education? Surprises, disappointments and experimentations in Australia and Hong Kong"
Grace Li and Angus Young
The Law Teacher
Published online: January 2026

Abstract: This article explores how law schools in Australia and Hong Kong address digital disruption, particularly legaltech, and whether curricula equip graduates to manage structural and business-model shifts in legal services. Using a systematic survey of course handbooks identified through keyword searches and coded by inclusion and exclusion criteria, the study maps documented legaltech education. Course descriptions were cross-checked with faculty webpages where possible, though reliance on published handbooks is noted as a limitation. Findings reveal that while legaltech offerings are growing, they remain uneven and fragmented. This gap supports the central argument: law schools must move beyond isolated technology modules to fostering adaptability and change management skills. Practical barriers—such as high software costs and limited staff expertise—further constrain reform despite pedagogical intent. By situating these challenges within broader debates on hybrid legal roles and regulatory disruption, the article underscores the need for legal education to evolve beyond technical knowledge toward preparing graduates for dynamic professional models.

Amanda Whitfort on Animal Welfare Law, Policy and the Threat of “Ag-gag” (Food Ethics)

"Animal Welfare Law, Policy and the Threat of “Ag-gag”: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back"

Amanda Whitfort

Food Ethics

First Online: 2 May 2019, 14 pp

Abstract: As has been the case in Europe, increasing consumer demand for higher welfare products has resulted in improved conditions for farm animals raised for slaughter in the USA and Australia. Consumer awareness has been significantly aided by investigations of farm and slaughterhouse conditions by animal welfare organizations, often working undercover. These gains are now under very serious threat. In eleven states in the USA, and three in Australia, new legislation, coined “Ag-gag” law, has been enacted prohibiting public dissemination of material depicting on farm animal use. In both countries, media corporations and private citizens are liable to up to three years’ imprisonment for publishing photographs or recordings depicting the conditions of animals on farms or at slaughter. Controls on the publication of information documenting animal use compromises transparency in the food chain, erodes the accountability of those involved in the management of animals and undermines the case for enhanced legislation and policy reform. This paper describes recent legal challenges in the USA to the constitutionality of “Ag-gag” laws and evaluates “Ag-gag” laws’ impact on animal welfare in agricultural facilities in the USA and Australia.

Richard Cullen Comments on High Speed Rail Co-Location Arrangements in Hong Kong (China Daily)

"Opponents of co-location ignore 'living law' model"
Richard Cullen
China Daily
2 Feb 2018

The intense debate over co-location of Hong Kong and Chinese mainland immigration and customs controls at the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link's West Kowloon terminus shows no sign of slackening off. Supporters rely significantly on the National People's Congress Standing Committee's statement on co-location's legal validity, made in December last year. This perspective stresses the sovereign authority of the NPCSC within the "one country, two systems" political-legal hierarchy governing the status of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region within the People's Republic of China. ...

    Almost 20 years ago, Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal laid down a set of primary principles designed to shape the interpretation of the Basic Law of the HKSAR. In a pivotal right of abode case, Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang stipulated that, with a constitutional document such as the Basic Law, a purposive approach is needed as gaps and ambiguities are bound to arise in such an instrument given its necessary generality. He also cautioned against using a technical, narrow or rigid approach when considering the language of the Basic Law. The chief justice did not rely directly on the living constitution theory in this seminal exposition but these CFA formulations are in harmony with that theory. ...

     Those arguments which say co-location has yet to be shown to be permitted by the Basic Law rely, above all, on a lack of explained particular authority in the Basic Law for co-location (a previously unforeseen need) and the Basic Law protections against the general application of mainland law in the HKSAR. These arguments are serious but they are, when viewed within a living constitution context (coupled with the cautionary words from the Court of Final Appeal), narrow and quite technical. Had similar arguments prevailed (and they were made) in Australia a century ago this would have conspicuously restrained the country's development and adaptation to a constantly changing world... Click here to read the full article.

Yahong Li and Graham Greenleaf on China's Copyright Public Domain in Comparison with Australia (new article)

"China's Copyright Public Domain: A Comparison with Australia"
Yahong Li and Graham Greenleaf
Australian Intellectual Property Journal 
2017, Vol. 27, Part 3, p 147

Abstract: A definition of the public domain by Greenleaf and Bond, based on the question “what can users do with works, without obtaining the permission of a copyright owner” and an analysis of it as being comprised by 15 distinct categories of “public rights”, has previously been proposed as necessary and sufficient to describe Australia’s copyright public domain. This article uses this approach to compare Australia’s copyright public domain with that of the very different social and legal system of the People’s Republic of China, and discovered that, compared with Australia, China’s public domain appears rather narrow, at least when only formal legal sources are compared. Out of the eight categories where the two countries differ significantly, Australia’s public domain is stronger in five. The public domain in modern Chinese copyright law is, not unexpectedly, somewhat different from that found in a “western” country such as Australia, but not in the radical way that could be naively expected to stem from arguments concerning China’s traditional philosophy, or its socialist modern history. The harmonising effects of international treaties and the pressures of international trade are the most obvious reasons for the relatively high degree of homogeneity. This comparison also suggests that the definition of the copyright public domain used requires modification in order to include China’s opt-out provisions in relation to free-use exceptions and collective licences. However, the comparison does not suggest that any new public domain categories are needed.

Ross Smith on Pensions Clauses in Double Taxation Agreements (AIIFL Paper)

"DTA Pensions Clause Fails Preservation, Portability and Long Duration Capital Formation Tests"

Ross Smith (PhD Candidate)
AIIFL TLRP Tax Comments - Working Paper Series
TTC Working Paper No 1
March 2017

Abstract: Pension accruals for retirement funding are included in domestic assets, then are subject to tax in International transfer transactions, which should not be in the scope of transnational tax avoidance issues. Existing Double Taxation Agreements (DTA) only have a single objective of tax rights, which unfortunately conflicts with the needs of overseas mobile citizens to enable adequate funding of pension retirement income streams, that should function with the ‘Sole Purpose Test’ in respect of SISA1 Legislation under the Australian Constitution’s ‘Pension Powers’ (S51xxiii). An actuarial model may suggest that a funded CPI indexed pension commencing at 66% of pre-retirement salary, should obviate a Government’s liability in the provision of old-age pensions. 

     Regrettably in Australian public administration, there appears to be a co-existence conflict when its taxation regime eliminated its 1946 national pensions scheme that left the Government’s liability unfunded for the provision of old-age pensions. 

     Changing jobs between tax jurisdictions several times before retirement causes pension payments to be taxed and paid out, which is also an opportunity cost to primary capital markets and causes a serious shortage of long duration capital for large scale investment projects. 

    As a partial solution to co-existence conflict, this paper advocates that a ‘Preservation and Portability’ Instrument should be included in Article 17 Pensions Clause in DTAs that preserves pension accruals until retirement age, allows for the tax-free portability transactions between respective tax jurisdictions, supports adequate funding of pensions in retirement, and adds significant economic value to primary capital markets with higher volume, long duration capital formation retention. The retention generates tax revenue as a secondary derivative to successful funding arrangement in the first instance.  Click here to download the full paper.

Comparative Study of Legal Education and Pathways to Admission in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia (J of Legal Education)

"Legal Education, Practice Skills, and Pathways to Admission: A Comparative Analysis of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia"

Andrew Godwin and Richard Wu

Journal of Legal Education

Winter 2017, Vol. 66, Number 2, pp. 212-236

Introduction: It appears axiomatic that as legal practice becomes more globalized, so too must legal education. One of the byproducts of the globalization of legal practice, involving both an increase in cross-border activity and also changes in the way the legal profession is structured and regulated, is that law schools are increasingly expected to prepare graduates for the challenges of global practice. An important question that arises in this respect is the role law schools should perform in preparing graduates for admission and, in particular, equipping graduates with the practice skills that lawyers need to operate effectively in a cross-border context. A substantial body of literature exists concerning the globalization of legal education and the globalization of legal practice. This paper contributes to the discourse by examining the relationship between the design of pathways to admission—namely, the processes by which graduates qualify for admission to legal practice—and legal education, particularly the incorporation of practice skills into the law school curriculum. This paper examines three jurisdictions in Asia that share a common-law heritage but adopt substantially different pathways to admission: Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. All three jurisdictions share a requirement for graduates to obtain practical training before they gain admission to practice.Singapore is unique among the three jurisdictions in that its pathway to admission involves a bar examination that follows a compulsory preparation course. Hong Kong and Australia, by contrast, currently do not adopt a bar examination and, instead, require completion of postgraduate professional legal training as a prerequisite to admission. However, two important points of difference exist between Hong Kong and Australia. First, enrollment in Hong Kong’s postgraduate certificate in laws (PCLL), an intensive one year full-time legal qualification program, is through competitive application. The existence of caps at each of the three providers means that not all graduates are guaranteed of winning a place in the PCLL and, therefore, gaining admission to practice. By comparison, enrollment in the practical legal training (PLT) course in Australia is not capped and all law graduates are therefore able to enroll in the course and gain admission to practice upon successful completion of the course. The second point of difference is that graduates in Australia can undertake supervised workplace training as an alternative to the PLT course and gain admission to practice on that basis without the need to complete a postgraduate professional training course. Interestingly, Hong Kong is currently moving closer to the approach of Singapore with the announcement by the Law Society of Hong Kong in January 2016 that a common entrance examination will be introduced and will come into effect by 2021. Critical questions in all jurisdictions are the role that law schools should play in preparing graduates for admission and the extent to which practice skills are expected to form part of the curriculum for the academic degree, as distinct from the professional training course that follows graduation and precedes admission. In this respect, the similarities are closer among the three jurisdictions. Unlike the American Bar Association, which requires students to complete at least six credit hours of experiential education, all three jurisdictions to date have avoided a prescriptive approach and have instead given the law schools discretion to determine how practice skills should be incorporated into the curriculum. However, some interesting points of difference exist among the three jurisdictions in terms of the extent to which the design of pathways to admission has been driven by perceived deficiencies in the teaching of practice skills within the academic degree and, therefore, the need to supplement these deficiencies as a prerequisite to practice. This paper examines the development of pathways to admission and identifies a number of interesting countervailing trends and contradictions. A central question raised by the comparative analysis is whether professional admission courses should serve as a gatekeeper in terms of assuring quality and competence or whether they should serve simply as preparatory courses for admission to the legal profession. The comparative analysis reveals a number of countervailing trends and contradictions concerning fundamental issues such as the function of a law degree and the impact of globalisation on legal education and legal practice. This paper argues that it is important for legal education to strengthen practice skills while maintaining a rigorous focus on legal doctrine and general skills such as analysis, problem-solving and research. This paper is structured as follows: Part II explores the relationship between legal education and legal practice by examining the emergence of professional training courses and the increasing expectations for law schools to incorporate practice skills into the curriculum. Parts III, IV, and V consider the pathways to admission in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, respectively, and track the debates in each of those jurisdictions concerning the relative importance of practice skills in their design. Part VI sets out the findings of the comparative analysis and offers some observations by way of conclusion.  Click here to read the full article.

 

Congratulations to Douglas Arner on HK$6.2M ARC Grant on Digital Financial Services

Congratulations to Douglas Arner, who together with colleagues from the University of New South Wales, Ross Buckley and Colin Picker, and Tillman Bruett (of the UN Capital Development Fund), are the chief investigators of a new 2015 Linkage Project funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).  The combined funding received from the ARC and UN Capital Development Fund is A$1,072,852 (HK$6.2M).  The project, funded from 2015 to 2018, aims to develop a regulatory regime for Australian digital financial services with implications for developing countries. The full description is as follows: 

This project aims to draw on regulatory developments abroad to develop an innovative, proportional, incremental regulatory regime for Australian digital financial services (DFS). DFS are set to grow rapidly in Australia, just as they have overseas. An effective and appropriate regulatory regime should result in a more competitive and efficient payments system that will lift productivity and economic growth. The project also intends to analyse and resolve regulatory roadblocks to the growth of DFS in developing countries to promote financial inclusion and economic growth, and thereby reduce poverty, in such countries.