The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law introduces an experimental course “Coding for Lawyers” for our Year 2 LLB or above, JD, LLM, MCL, and PhD students in Year 2025-26! In the era of big data and AI, this intensive course provides law students with no prior experience an accessible primer on classical programming and machine learning using Python.
What You’ll Learn:
✔ Core programming principles (variables, data types, loops, conditionals, functions) and computational logic.
✔ Utilize the Python programming language to create small, functional scripts.
✔ Ideate how computer programmes can be used to automate or solve routine legal tasks.
✔ Understand basic principles of machine learning (train-test split, supervised and unsupervised learning, evaluation metrics)
Class schedule
1. Thursday, 18 September 2025 (Evening), 7-9pm
Session 0: Introductory Lecture: How Machines Learn
Session 1: Data Types, Expressions and Variables
2. Saturday, 20 September 2025 (Morning), 9am-12pm
Session 1: Data Types, Expressions and Variables (cont)
Session 2: Boolean Logic and Decision Making
3. Monday, 22 September 2025 (Evening), 7-9pm
Session 3: Loops and Repetition
4. Wednesday, 24 September 2025 (Evening), 7-9pm
Session 4: Data Structures – Lists
5. Saturday, 27 September 2025 (Morning), 9am-12pm
Session 5: Data Structures – Dictionaries
6. Thursday, 2 October 2025 (Evening), 7-9pm
Session 6: Functions and Code Reusability
7. Saturday, 4 October 2025 (Morning), 9am-12pm
Session 7: Legal Predictions and Machine Learning
8. Thursday, 9 October 2025 (Evening), 7-8pm
Session 8: Review
Session 9: Conclusions
9. Saturday, 11 October 2025 (Morning), 9-11am
Examination
Lecturers:
Professor Daniel Seng (National University of Singapore Faculty of Law)
Professor Benjamin Chen (HKU Faculty of Law)
Limited to 50 sign-ups!
Deadline to apply: September 15, 2025. Registration fee: HK$ 200 (non-refundable). Payment instructions will be sent to eligible students who have registered.
This course is non-credit bearing and is weighted at 50% on coursework and 50% on examination. The exam will be held on October 11, 2025. Students who have passed the examination will be awarded a Certificate of Completion. Minimum attendance of at least 12 hours of class time (excluding review and exam).
✨ Sign up for the course now! https://forms.office.com/r/qGYj5VRt1z
For inquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at mcgrace@hku.hk.
