Course Title: Law, History and Culture

Course Lecturers: Dr. Michael Ng吳海傑 (Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong)

Course Description and Learning Objectives: This course consists of 9 sessions. It will enable students to research and examine the history of law and its connection with social, political and economic development of Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan in the 19th and 20th centuries through discussion of archival study done by international scholars. Students will be taught briefly on the use of archival materials. They are required to present and submit an essay on the legal history of Taiwan through archival study. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this course will explore how the notion of law functions as a site of discourse in the expression of identity as well as the articulation of ethnic and socio-economic differences.

Learning Activities:
Teacher’s introductory presentation (30 minutes)
Discussion on readings (50 minutes)
Discussion on presentation and essay (20 minutes)

Assessment:
Regular class participation; 10%
Presentation 30%
Essay (2,000-2,500 words in English) 60%

Session Outline

1. Topic: Stephen Chow（周星馳）’s movies and justice in Qing China

Video: Stephen Chow’s movie: 九品芝麻官 (Hail the Judge)
Readings: Albert Chen, An Introduction to the Legal System of People’s Republic of China (LexisNexis, 2011) pp18-23.

2. Topic: Access to justice in Chinese society
Readings: Susumu Fuma, “Litigation Masters and the Litigation System of Ming and Qing China,” International Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 4, no. 1 (2007)

3. Topic: Traditional Chinese jurisprudence and legal westernization
Readings: Michael Ng, Legal Transplantation in Early Twentieth-Century China: Practicing law in Republican Beijing (1910s-1930s). New York, London: Routledge, 2014, Ch 1.

4. Topic: Freedom of expression, press censorship and the rule of law in British Hong Kong
Readings: Richard Klein, ‘The Empire Strikes Back: Britain's Use of the Law to Suppre