On 2 December 2016, CityU Department of English, CUHK Faculty of Law, CityU School of Law and HKU Faculty of Law co-organised a symposium entitled “Learning the Language of the Law: An Interdisciplinary Symposium for Legal and Language Practitioners”. The symposium emerged from a UGC-funded, collaborative, language-related project led by Dr Christoph A. HAFNER of the Department of English of City University of Hong Kong. It was attended by the Deans of all three law schools/faculties of Hong Kong, as well as the Acting Dean of CLASS, Dr Peppina Lee.

In order to tackle issues of language in legal contexts, the symposium brought together a wide range of participants such as legal practitioners and academics from the disciplines of law and applied linguistics. In this way, the symposium not only pooled knowledge across disciplines, but also reached out from the academy to the legal professional community.

A focus of the symposium was the official launch of a web-based digital multimedia resource designed to promote effective legal communication and oral advocacy skills. The website, called Legal English in Hong Kong, is a deliverable of the project. It includes two kinds of video-based teaching and learning resources, namely interviews with legal experts providing advice on legal writing and legal argument, and instructional videos targeting language skills in law. The Legal English in Hong Kong website can be found at https://legalenglish.hk

Cover photo: (Left to right) Prof Michael Hor, Prof Christopher Gane, Dr Christoph A. Hafner and Prof Geraint Howells introducing the interdisciplinary symposium on language and law.