English in Southeast Asian legal education and practice

Abstract This article addresses the role of English in legal education in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. After reviewing tertiary curricula, government and professional regulations, and recent research literature, it concludes that the media of instruction and evaluation are largely what would be expected of the Kachruvian model of Three Circles. As far as implications for applied linguistics are concerned, one question that arises is the extent to which language policy in legal education, whether pulling toward or pushing back against English, is significantly different from policy in other professions such as medicine. A second question concerns the relationship between language policy in legal education and the needs of legal practice. Does monolingual English instruction in Singapore, predominantly English instruction in Malaysia, or increased pressure to supplement Indonesian instruction with English in Indonesia, serve the needs of prospective legal practitioners?