INTRODUCTION

The Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya provides a liberal education in law based on a comprehensive approach to law as an academic discipline. The Faculty also equips students with practical professional skills and professional ethics including a critical study of laws to satisfy the needs of organisations, social changes and justice.

Since its inception in 1972, the Faculty offers its Bachelor of Laws programme at the undergraduate level (LLB). The LLB programme represents a combination of the academic and professional disciplines which entitles the holder of the degree to be admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the High Court at the end of his 9-month pupillage internship.

In 1972, the Faculty began with an intake of only 50 students. Since 1978, the intake was increased and has steadily been maintained at an annual figure of about 100 students. The first batch of law students graduated in 1976. Since then, the graduates of the Faculty of Law, Universiti Malaya, comprise illustrious alumni who are currently in the Judicial and Legal Services sector, the Government, in Parliament and in the legal and corporate sectors. A number of alumni opted to remain with the Faculty These are those who had gone on to do their postgraduate studies at home and abroad, and upon their return and completion of their postgraduate degrees, joined the Faculty as academic staff.

The Faculty's staff strength is about 40. Although the majority of them are Malaysian citizens, from time to time the Faculty receives visiting academics from other common law countries such as India, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The visiting Faculty members deliver lectures and seminars to students, particularly at the postgraduate level. External examiners appointed by the Faculty are drawn from illustrious members of academia from Australia, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and from the Judicial Service of Malaysia and they ensure that the academic standards of its programmes are maintained.

The rationale for the initiation of the programme was based on the premise that the role of the Law Faculty should be extended to frontiers beyond merely serving the needs of matriculated students. Due to the dynamic character of law, and the developmental milestones that are fast impacting the law, there is a need to continually keep abreast of the developments, not just in the academic realm but also to disseminate the developments to the practice world. LEEP courses are thus designed to meet the needs of both legal professionals who wish to keep abreast of the recent developments, as well as other interested individuals and corporations. The course coordinators are sourced from a pool of academicians, legal practitioners, judiciary and other legal professional consultants.