"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Law"

The School of Law at City University of Hong Kong has an outstanding reputation as a leading law school. We are consistently ranked among the top law schools internationally in THE and QS rankings. We foster a culture of integrated research and teaching, drawing on the expertise of our internationally diverse faculty and an ever growing student body. Our faculty are engaged in cutting-edge research that impacts legal reform and policy in Hong Kong, Greater China and beyond. We encourage both theoretical and applied research with local, regional or international significance.

The School’s outstanding research strengths include public law fields such as human rights, comparative constitutional law, and criminal law and justice; private law fields, including torts law, corporate law, commercial law and financial regulation; as well as comparative law, international economic law and international arbitration law. For potential areas of research supervision, you may browse our staff profiles and our list of staff’s areas of interest and expertise. The School of Law looks forward to receiving your application.

For those interested in research on the Chinese Mainland, the School offers a unique opportunity to engage with sitting PRC judges who are participating in the JSD (Chinese Judges) programme. Alternatively, our research degree programme also offers rich opportunities to engage with international scholars as well as in-service PRC judges and other legal experts from Greater China.

Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), established by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, aims to attract the best and brightest students in the world to pursue their research degree programs at a Hong Kong institution.

Funding and Scholarship

The Fellowship provides awardees with a monthly stipend of HK$28,400 (~US$3,640) and a conference and research related travel allowance of HK$14,200 (~US$1,820) per year for a maximum of three years. (These rates are for 2026/27. They are subject to revision from time to time.)

For Fellowship awardees who are admitted to a 4-year PhD programme, CityUHK will provide a monthly studentship at the same level as the RGC Fellowship for their fourth year of study.

English Proficiency Requirements

Applicants from non-English speaking universities are required to attach their TOEFL or IELTS score results with their PhD applications, unless they can provide proof that English is the language of instruction for all courses that qualify them for entrance to their proposed PhD programme. TOEFL and IELTS scores are considered valid for two years from the test date and must be valid at the time of submission of application to CityUHK.

For further details of the Scheme, please visit here.

Application Deadlines

Step One: Applicants should first submit an initial application at RGC's Online Application System to obtain a RGC reference number (RGC’s deadline: 1 December 2025 [12:00noon Hong Kong Time or GMT +8 hours]).

Step Two: Applicants are then required to submit full application, together with all supporting documents, to CityUHK's Online Admission System, and quote the RGC reference number (CityUHK’s deadline: 1 December 2025 [23:59 Hong Kong Time or GMT +8 hours]).

Prospective students are strongly encouraged to contact potential supervisors in their subject area before submitting an application, to ensure that appropriate supervision will be available for a given research project.

Enquiries

School of Law
City University of Hong Kong
83 Tat Chee Avenue
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 3442 8008
Fax: (852) 3442 0190
E-mail: slwrpg@cityu.edu.hk
Website: http://www.cityu.edu.hk/slw