English-Language LL.M. Programs in Chinese Law

My apologies if the posting has dropped off as of late. We're still in the United States on our extended holiday break, so we don't have any China-related experiences to share. But I thought I would break the silence with a quick post about law schools.

Part of the original intent of this blog was to create a resource for people interested in getting an LL.M. in Chinese law. In early February, someone on the China Law Listserv asked for advice about applying to the three English-language Chinese Law LL.M. programs that are hosted by Peking University, Qinghua University, and the University of Hong Kong. Another person then asked about

• Whether either program has a link to a US or UK law school providing joint- accreditation or other benefits


• Whether SJDs have been set up


• Any plans for expansion or additions of courses or concentrations
  

Since we are enrolled in the Peking University program, I responded to these two inquiries on BeiDa's behalf. What follows is a modified version of my response. People can only get at the China Law Listserv content by signing up for a user ID and password, so I thought I'd re-post it here.

"I'm enrolled in one of the two programs, but on the BeiDa side. My wife and I both applied to the programs at PKU, Qinghua, and HKU right out of law school in the U.S., but we decided to enroll at PKU. Some folks in the program followed the same path as us, but others practiced for several years before coming to Beijing to pursue the degree. So it's a nice mix of different experiences in the classroom.

I'm not going to comment on the comparative prestige of the three programs, as doing so will only refresh the unending debate about the relative merits of PKU and Qinghua in this forum. I will say, however, that our decision to attend BeiDa had a lot to do with name recognition in the United States, which was important to us because we intend to return home after we finish the degree. If you hope to practice in China, however, my sense is that both schools have a solid reputation on the Mainland, and you can't go wrong with either one. Moreover, some BeiDa law professors teach in the Qinghua program, so it's not as if you're stuck with only one faculty.

The second year of the BeiDa program focuses upon the completion of a dissertation and an internship, and does not involve time spent in the classroom. Qinghua also requires a dissertation of its LL.M. students, but piles it on with other coursework in the first year. So in that sense, PKU makes things somewhat easier by spreading things out a little.

With respect to tuition, however, Qinghua is slightly less expensive: Qinghua costs 146,000 RMB, while BeiDa costs 160,00 RMB. Moreover, Qinghua allows students to pay in a fixed amount of U.S. dollars, which is important to those of us with bank accounts denominated in that ever-declining currency. Keep in mind, however, that BeiDa asks for 80,000 RMB before classes start in the first year, and another 80,000 in the second year. Assuming that Qinghua follows the same annual payment method, BeiDa's program lessens the financial impact by spreading things out across two years, and allowing students to draw a salary in their second year to offset living costs. Having said all that, however, practicing attorneys in Beijing have expressed shock upon learning about how much PKU charges us. But I suspect that their surprise has more to do with comparing the cost of the English-language programs against the cost of the Chinese-language programs at the same universities.

BeiDa does not have a joint accreditation relationship established with a U.S. or U.K. law school, so far as I am aware. But BeiDa does have relationships established with Georgetown, Penn, and Columbia to facilitate study abroad, and Qinghua seems to have a similar relationship with Penn. As for an S.J.D. or any plans for course expansions/concentrations, my sense is that there's not enough students attending either program to merit that sort of diversification, at least for now.

[One thing to keep in mind for American citizens contemplating either program is that neither PKU nor Qinghua are accredited for financial aid by the U.S. Department of Education. As such, if you're hoping to use FAFSA to fund your LL.M. at either university, you better start looking for another source of financing.]

With respect to the value of the program, I can only speak from personal experience. The pedagogy at BeiDa is vastly different from what I experienced in law school in the United States, in the sense that professors do not use the Socratic method and instead lecture from slides, much like undergraduate professors. As a result, after a few weeks of watching professors read the contents of their PowerPoint presentations, I found myself oddly longing for cold-calling. On the other hand, I have learned more about Chinese law in the last four months than I did in years of self-directed study, largely due to the papers I had to write and the preparation required for exams, as well as the opportunities I've had to interact with the best and brightest of the Chinese legal academy. In addition, studying at PKU has afforded my classmates and I opportunities to work at top law firms in Beijing, mostly through part-time work on days off. So, overall, the program has been very good both academically and professionally.

If I had it to do over again, however, I would have spent at least a year in an intensive Mandarin program at PKU or BCLU before enrolling at BeiDa. I only started learning Chinese upon arriving in Beijing, and it is a continuing struggle to get better, particularly when trying to finish reading for the LL.M. program. One of my classmates spent a year studying Chinese before starting the program, and he seems to be having an easier time absorbing the material and interacting with the professors, who tend pepper their lectures with written and spoken Chinese. To paraphrase our administrative law professor, 'learning Chinese law in English is like trying to eat Chinese food without chopsticks.'"

It turns out, however, that BeiDa, Qinghua, and HKU are not the only English-language LL.M. programs. Evidently there are similar offerings at China University of Political Science and Law, the School of Oriental and African Studies.