Graduate Diploma in English and Hong Kong Law


The Graduate Diploma in English and Hong Kong Law is a Hong Kong graduate diploma programme that allows students that did not take law as an undergraduate degree to "convert" to law, before going onto a professional qualification course and ultimately legal training.
The GDEHKL is a localised mutation of the Common Professional Examination of England and Wales, or Postgraduate Diploma in Law. It is jointly offered by the University of Hong Kong's School of Professional and Continuing Education as the course operator, and Manchester Metropolitan University as the qualification awarding institution. The completion of the course qualifies students to proceed to legal training courses in Hong Kong and England & Wales or to many LL.M. programmes. Graduates of the GDEHKL include Judge Anthea Pang Po-kam and Judge Linda Chan Ching-fan, two judges on the Court of First Instance of the High Court.
The GDEHKL is the only law programme in Hong Kong which substantially satisfies both the requirements for entry into the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws for those who intend to practice law in Hong Kong, and also the requirements for entry into the Legal Practice Course and the English Bar Professional Training Course for those who intend to practice in England and Wales. The GDEHKL is recognised by the Standing Committee on Legal Education and Training as demonstrating competence in the three Top-up Subjects on Hong Kong law required for entry to the PCLL. Graduates of the GDEHKL who continue on to take the additional MMU LLB year after the CPE will have passed all necessary law subjects required for PCLL eligibility.
The GDEHKL is an exempted course under a Hong Kong law known as the Non-Local Higher and Professional Education Ordinance, which states that it is a matter of discretion for individual employers to recognize any qualification to which this course may lead.