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SMU's New Law School With 40% Non-Law Subjects 
Posted on Friday, October 27, 2006 - 12:00 AM

It is reported in TODAY that Singapore Management University is again 'rocking-the-boat' with its bold plan to offer in August 2007 a law degree with less than the traditional 75% legal content. Instead it will offer the degree with 60% legal courses.

Good grounding in legal reasoning and skills can provide the basic building blocks of a good lawyer. Traditionally, the training to develop such reasoning and skills comes from studying legal topics like contracts, torts, crime and other 'hard' legal subjects.

However in the modern business world, it is also necessary for lwayers to understand their clients' businesses. Non-legal subjects can provide that foundation. It is be interesting to see if the experiment works but this must not be at the cost of the students.