The School of Law (SLW) at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) received a donation worth HK$500,000 from the K H Koo Charitable Foundation on 2 November. The donation will be used to support maritime and transportation law courses.

The School is entrusted with the task of nurturing maritime and transportation legal professionals in support of Hong Kong’s continued development as a maritime service centre and to consolidate its position as an international transportation hub. It has developed a new field of study to meet the challenges posed by globalisation.

Hong Kong enjoys many advantages, including geographical location, language skills and the rule of law. In order to support Hong Kong’s continued development as a maritime service centre, it is important to strengthen legal education and research in maritime, aviation and other areas of transportation law.

A cheque presentation ceremony was held today. It was attended by Mr Kenneth Koo, Chairman and CEO of TCC Group; Mr Yau Shing-mu, Under-Secretary for Transport and Housing; Professor Way Kuo, President of CityU; Professor Arthur Ellis, Provost of CityU; and Professor Wang Guiguo, Dean of SLW.

“We sow our seeds today,” Professor Kuo said. “The development of the Hong Kong maritime and transportation industry has not had sufficient seeds so far.”

He added that CityU was thankful for the donation from the K H Koo Charitable Foundation. “The donation allows SLW to recruit excellent faculty, attract high-calibre students and contribute to grooming the next generation of professionals for the maritime and shipping industry.”

Mr Koo said, “As a member of the third-generation family shipping business, I see great challenges facing the industry. Externally, there are competing ports in the Asia Pacific region and mainland China. Locally, recruitment issues are a concern. But I am delighted to see that the School of Law is taking the lead in running the maritime and transportation law programme. It provides professional training for locals and we are able to follow London’s example of becoming a one-stop high-end maritime service provider. I am also thankful to be one of the pioneers and to work with CityU’s School of Law in promoting professional legal training in the maritime industry.”

Professor Wang gave his vote of thanks, too. “It has been a challenge to CityU’s School of Law to develop a maritime and transportation law programme, but we will turn this challenge into opportunity. We are thankful for the generous donation from the K H Koo Charitable Foundation."

He added that SLW started the Master of Laws programme (Maritime and Transportation Law stream) in September this year. Students taking the Master of Laws programme for Chinese judges at CityU come from maritime courts in mainland China.

“They actively discuss maritime knowledge with our students. Furthermore, our programme has attracted invitations for future academic exchanges from a well-known university specialising in maritime law in the US. Therefore, we are confident that we can breed the necessary legal professionals for the industry in the near future.”