PCLL FULL-TIME 2023 - 2024

COMMERCIAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION ELECTIVE

COURSE OUTLINE

OVERVIEW

The Commercial Dispute Resolution elective will take place over semester 2. It is
intended for students who are interested in a contentious legal career, either as a litigation
solicitor or barrister. The elective will:

 build on the skills and knowledge acquired in the Civil Litigation core course
 allow students to practise those skills in the context of commercial disputes
 address aspects of litigation which have not been covered in detail in the core Civil
Litigation course (e.g. complex multi-party disputes; specialist winding-up
proceedings; documenting settlements; enforcement)
 give students a practical introduction to alternative methods of dispute resolution.

Please note that students are expected to attend all LG and SG sessions.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Students will work on two case studies, as follows:

CASE STUDY 1

Case Study 1 is a multi-party commercial dispute, arising out of the sale of a company’s
packaging business. This case study will also be used as a vehicle to introduce students to
alternative methods of dispute resolution, including arbitration and mediation, which are
growing in popularity in Hong Kong. Students will be drafting complex pleadings,
practising negotiation skills and participating in a mediation exercise for this case study.

CASE STUDY 2

Case Study 2 will be based on a shareholders’ dispute. Students will act as counsel for the
petitioner and counsel for the respondent(s) in an action for winding-up on a just and
equitable basis/unfair prejudice. Students will be drafting affidavits and conducting an
advocacy exercise for this case study.

1
ASSESSMENT PROPOSAL

This elective will be assessed as follows:

Assessment Percentage of total mark

1 Negotiation skills in mock mediation 20%

2 Mediation Report 10%

(in which students will report on what they have learnt
from the mock mediation about (1) the mediation
process itself; and (2) their negotiation skills)

3 In-hall examination on advanced pleading drafting 35%

(similar to Case Study 1)

4 In-hall examination on affidavit drafting: winding-up 35%

on just and equitable basis/ unfair prejudice
(similar to Case Study 2)

Further, there will be an advocacy assessment (the “Advocacy Assessment”) in Case

Study 2 which will serve as an assessment component of this course. Students will be
assessed on a pass/fail basis. Any student who fails to achieve a “pass” in the Advocacy
Assessment may be debarred from sitting the affidavit drafting examination.

In order to pass this elective, students must obtain an overall pass in items 1 to 4 above
AND pass the Advocacy Assessment.

Justin Woo and Bernard Siu

Course Coordinators

* Cap on student numbers

In view of the available resources, including the number of outside practitioners available
to help with different aspects of the course, there is a cap of 132 students for the course
this year.

If, in the unlikely event, more than the above number of students choose this elective, the
cap will, as with other courses, be applied by the ranking of the elective choices –
students who put CDR as their first choice will be taken first, then if there are places left,
we will go to students who put CDR as their second choice, and so on. To the extent there
are insufficient places left to accommodate all students after allocation is done for the
previous tier(s), the office will draw lots. To take an extreme example, if 110 students
choose CDR as first choice, 20 students choose it as second and 10 students choose it as
third, the first-choice and second-choice students will all be taken into the course
directly, and the office will draw lots amongst the third-choice students to fill the
remaining 2 places.