Connecting Students

OE is a rare opportunity to prompt one to analyse the law in one area in great depth. Usually, in law school, students are just asked to grasp the key principles and apply them to the facts, leaving many to read only digests/nutshell. But OE is quite different from that practice: IMHO, one has to read one or a few cases in depth and present their most interesting facets to classmates, and quite often, the presentations were hilarious enough that the whole class bursted into laughter. So OE benefits everyone. The presenters could acquire the knowledge of their topic very thoroughly: I can still remember quite clearly the principles of resulting trust and presumption of advancement. The rest of the class could enjoy the lesson, and the OE presentations are often shortcut to revision. This is why I love OE.

Brian TAN, LLB

Knowledge may fade but the experience of doing OE will not. OE is a rare opportunity in law school which allows students to do out-of-the-box thinking — to search on the news and relate principles of land law to our personal lives. Our group had a lot of fun making the video and it will certainly be a sweet memory when we look back after graduation.

Ricci CHOY, LLB

Taking part in the Optional Exploration was undoubtedly a fascinating and rewarding process. It allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of the topics while having a chance to exhibit creativity. Digging deeper into the topics, identifying niche issues in the law and applying the legal concepts to day-to-day scenarios truly enhanced my learning experience.

Alexander BURG, BBA(Law)

The optional exploration was a challenging yet enjoyable task as I got to combine my creativity with my legal knowledge to produce an interesting video. It gave me more incentive to explore deeper into the areas of Land Law and has made Land Law class a lot more exciting!

Nicholas CHAN, BBA(Law)

The optional exploration provided me with an alternate window to explore into the intricacies of Land Law. Being able to combine textbook knowledge with interactive elements was very refreshing, and being able to learn across different topics from works designed by fellow classmates was a huge bonus for me.

Milton LAM, LLB

Optional Exploration was an excellent opportunity for my groupmates and myself to incorporate legal knowledge into a creative presentation. It was challenging in the first place as we needed to come up with a novel idea, and to concretely present relevant legal concepts. As we worked on the topic of Presumption of Advancement, our team utilized the family relationships in Doraemon to demonstrate how this legal doctrine applies in everyday context (special thanks to the author for the great storyline). We even modified the lyrics of its famous theme song in hopes of brainwashing everyone in the lecture hall. Our team felt immense joy throughout the entire video-making process, from designing the plot to actual acting. The enthusiastic responses we received from others were especially fulfilling, realizing how we could share our understandings with the rest of the class. The entire Optional Exploration experience was an absolute enjoyment, and was definitely one of the highlights in my law school life!

Agnis LEE, BSS(GL)

I would never forget about being the Doraemon in our optional exploration video, teaching Nobita how presumption of advancement and resulting trust work. This way of learning is not just about inputting legal knowledge but integrating them in many creative ways – it was just so much fun! At first, I thought that making proposals and videos are quite demanding. Yet, it turns out to be a very rewarding part in OE as I could spot my mistakes in understanding the textbook before the exam. Watching other’s work makes lesson time more enjoyable too. We were humming a tune of Doraemon, laughing and absorbing the legal concepts without noticing it ourselves.

Candy LAM, BSS(GL)

The Optional Exploration (OE) was a remarkable experience for me and this is not a cliche. Entering law school was at first a big blow to one’s confidence and I struggled a lot in the first two years, feeling that I was never good enough. But having stumbled upon the opportunity of OE, I decided to ‘BJ’ and give it a try. We collaborated our efforts in plotting, scriptwriting, props making, filming and editing. What I enjoyed the most was plotting and scriptwriting, which allowed me to combine conceptual knowledge with my creativity, of which I was aware but suppressed under a stressful learning atmosphere. The sense of fulfilment did not just come from a good final grade but also the fact that our ability to present our understanding of the law in a way other than acing the exams was recognised. Of course, it was great joy listening to the laughters of the audience, too! Doing OE (with cooperative groupmates and fancy ideas) is going to be a jewel in your LLB studies that you would not want to miss!

Verity TAM, BSS(GL)

Doing the OE allows you to engage more critically with the law/case that you are presenting on. The presentation encourages you to consider and discuss what the most crucial aspect of the particular case is and how you can concisely summarize it. It has also been interesting to see how creative we can all be in thinking up ideas and the collaborative process involved in this can be fun. It's a balance between learning effectively and efficiently and enjoying yourself - and it's important to not forget either.

Sharon YUEN, BA&LLB

(What did we do?) For this Optional Exploration project, the four of us filmed ourselves demonstrating the couple's story in Stack v Dowden as well as Lady Hale and Lord Neuberger's legal debate on the choice between constructive trust and resulting trust in solving property ownership disputes.

(What was our goal?) Our focus was to ensure that our classmates understand the case and the (rather complicated) legal arguments in an exciting way. To this end, we designed a pictural chronology and a worksheet with a few items in blank to challenge their understanding. These materials were referred to in our in-class discussion, throughout which Alice helpfully offered useful guidance and feedback.

(How was the result?) Our classmates commented that our video was hilarious, and some of them even told me that they would use our materials in the exam. Perhaps most importantly, we had lots of fun despite the stressful semester and eventually became very close friends. We are still studying together in the PCLL and laugh at our video every time we re-visit it!

Hester CHOI, JD (2019)

Yes, we produced a short film of a Chinese ghost story in our land law course, can you imagine that? OE gave students a large room of manoeuvre and freedom to express what they have learnt creatively. It recognises the fundamental fact that every individual is unique, and therefore different students have different ways of learning. Our group is a creative composition who found our interest, passion and energy in drama, comedy, and film production. We produced a funny video in the wish that we, as the co-teachers in class, can transform some difficult concepts in law into formats that are easier, fun and acceptable for our classmates, and we succeeded. Most importantly, I found long-lasting friendships and support from my group. We became the closest friends in class, and we are still keeping our friendships even after we entered PCLL. We will remember what we have learnt forever!

Vanessa TSANG, JD (2019)

The land law I project has been the most enjoyable memory of my legal study. I never imagined in my life that I’d make a short horror movie for a law course. The project not only made the legal principles in Stack v Dowden easier to understand, it also helps students to remember the details of the facts as if they are watching a movie. I am happy that we have given our best effort to the project. This is really enjoyable!

Him HO, JD (2019)

I have always enjoyed making and editing videos so I am so glad that I found my group mates who were as devoted as I did!

We chose an actual case Stack v Dowden as our theme but decided to give its facts some twist to make our video more unique and memorable for our class. And coincidentally, the time we were to present the video had been close to Halloween - and this was how the ghost story idea came up!

On the knowledge side, for the purpose of making the video we had to be very familiar with the facts and rulings. I lost count of how many times we read the case but we were actually motivated to do so for the sake of this project. And the case is now stuck in my mind forever and has come useful even in PCLL!

On the creative side, I was mainly responsible for editing the video. While it was certainly time-consuming doing so, that sense of satisfaction I get when I watched it with the class, and even till now whenever I rewatch it, make it worth the time. It had also been so fun to get the group together to watch the video and get opinion from everyone to make the video as it is today. The feeling of getting with great people to get something done is overwhelmingly good.

On the friendship side, I have become closer than ever with Vanessa, Hester and Him through this project till today and I believe in the future. I am so thankful for this opportunity as making this video with them is one of the best memories I have, and they are certainly one of the best gifts I get from JD.

Hillary CHAN, JD (2019)