Description
Among Higher Education Institutions in Macau and in Asia, the USJ Post-Graduate Diploma in Legislative Sciences is unique in its particular technical-legal thematic focus. The programme is innovative and hands-on, catering for both legal professionals and legal interpreters and translators. The programme has been accompanied by, and had input from both academics in the legal area in Macau and Portugal (at the Catholic University of Porto) and by long-standing practitioners of the law, in Macau. Indeed, the eventual staffing of the programme will benefit from specialists and long-term practitioners also drawn from these sources.
Typical Duration
12 months
Recommended prior knowledge
Bachelor degree
Teaching Medium
Portuguese
Total number of credits for graduation
24
Campus
Ilha Verde Campus
Official Approval (Click here)
The USJ Post-Graduate Diploma in Legislative Sciences is fully taught in Portuguese language. Overall, represents an academic opportunity to improve technical skills in the area of legislative sciences and legal language. The programme comprises 24 credits distributed over a 12 months period. The programme is formulated in line with the role of Macau SAR as especial administrative region of PRC. Thus, it is important to stress that, the programme addresses legal language, formal and material legistics as methods to cover all aspects related to the processes and technics in relation to legal production. At the same time, the programme includes a practical dimension to master legal Portuguese language.
The USJ Post-Graduate Diploma in Legislative Sciences stands as a token of a quest for excellence. It is the first Post-Graduate Diploma in the area of Law approved by the MSAR Government for official implementation at USJ. Furthermore, it represents a unique learning opportunity, an occasion to deeper technical abilities in legistics, an advanced opportunity to learn today, as a basis for tomorrow’s merit leadership. To join this programme is to invest decisively in your professional future.
This academic programme aims specifically to provide an opportunity for self-development in the area of legislative sciences, yet it constitutes neither a legal professional internship nor a requirement to access any bar association. As such, the typical career options are: legal petitioners, translators and interpreters, governmental departments with legislative responsibilities, legislative council advisors, legal offices, notaries, translation services and arbitration and mediation services.
Study plan & description of modules
Please click on any specific module to see its description.
Modules
Year 1
1. What is a political system?
2. Types of States… MSAR is not a State.
3. Types of Executives
4. Types of Assemblies
5. Political Representation
6. Introduction and Historic legal background
7. The “EOM” and the Portuguese Constituion of 1976
8. The Joint Declarion of 1987
9. The continuity principle
10. The formula “one country two systems” and the MBL
11. The MBL nature
12. The MBL autonomy and the MSAR
13. RPC and SAR
14. SAR and Comparative Law
15. Macau Constitutional Order
16. Fundamental rights in MBL
17. MSAR political system
18. MSAR and the judicial system
19. MSAR executive system
20. MSAR and the International Law: The Macau International legal personality
21. MSAR and the MBL limits
22. MSAE and the principle of high degree of autonomy
23. MSAR and lusophony
24. MSAR and the portuguese language
• Introduction
• Characteristics of legal language
• How to write legal documents?
• How to interpreter legal expressions?
• Understanding how to explain the Macau SAR legal system?
• How to address the different types of legal documents?
• How to read and interpreter basic legal documents
• MSAR Basic Law vocabulary
• MSAR Civil Law vocabulary
• Practice of legal drafting
• Practice of legal interpretation
• How to read and interpreter complex legal documents?
• Vocabulary related to MSAR penal code.
• Vocabulary related to MSAR commercial code.
• Vocabulary related to MSAR jurisprudence.
• Vocabulary related to legal bills and its technical discussion
• Vocabulary related to Decree-laws
• Vocabulary related to Regulations
• Vocabulary related to Executive Orders
• Vocabulary related to Sentences
• Vocabulary related to Legal assessments
1. Why studing legistics?
2. Sources of Law in the MSAR
3. Law and its regulator role
4. Law as an instrument of governance
5. Law a result of a historical, social and political environment
6. Legistics definition
7. Material Legistics
8. Organizational Legistics
9. Formal Legistics
10. Legistics phasing
11. Legistics risk and assessment
12. Legistics evaluation
13. Legistics in MSAR – final assessment
1. Introduction
2. International sources of law
3. Hard and soft law
4. International legal instruments
5. MSAR international obligations
6. MSAR and international law
7. PRC and MSAR and international law – roles and responsibilities
8. Formal Legistics
9. The crafting of legal solutions
10. Legistics - phasing
11. Legistics - risk and assessment
12. Legistics - evaluation
13. Legistics in MSAR – final assessment
1. How to understand legistics?
2. How to draft effectively?
3. How to intrepret effectively?
4. How to use legal drafting techniques?
5. Public Participation and legal drafting
6. How to improve the legal drafting?
7. Legal drafting and punctuation
8. Legal drafting: capitals and small letters
9. Legal drafting: italics and bolds
10. How to draft laws?
11. How to draft other normative acts?
12. Case studies
1. Normative Communication
2. The legal discourse
3. The legal message
4. Drafting principles
5. Normative Simplicity
6. Drafting complex legal documents
7. Bilingual drafting
8. Legal translations
9. Quality evaluation
1. Legal decision-making process
2. The MSAR Legislative Council
3. The MSAR Legislative Council – Internal regulations
4. Legal decision-making process – political negotiation
5. Legal decision-making process – legal phasing
6. Urgent Legal decision-making process
7. Legal decision-making process – Publication questions
The ultimate goal of the subject is to get participants ready to undertake the writing tasks demanded of lawyers. Specifically, the subject should help honing the following skills:
• Analyzing and conceptualizing legal issues.
• Organizing strategies (outlining, decision trees, cluster diagrams).
• Structuring legal arguments and documents.
• Using core writing techniques, including clarity, cohesion, concision, and legal concerns.
• Writing strong introductions and conclusions.
• Mastering objective v. persuasive techniques.
• Sharpening efficient writing and editing skills using timed assignments.