The English Language-Based Bachelor of Law Program (ELBBL) of the Royal University of Law and Economics was founded in 2002 by H. E. York Ngoy and Mrs. Margaret Jane Ryan, the Founder and Director of ELBBL. This program provides students with a unique opportunity to undertake an undergraduate law degree in English. ELBBL strives to compete with international law programs, incorporating comprehensive coursework, research, and competitions into its program. Scheduling classes in the evening shift, the program allows students to specialize in their interested field of law through taking up to four elective courses.

In 2014, the Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law (CSHL or the Center) was established. The Center is an integral part of the ELBBL program. It is also committed to supporting RULE to implement its Strategic Policy, primarily aiming to foster a robust legal education for students, to develop the research capacity and pedagogic skills of faculty members and academics, to produce high quality research and publication, and to widen international and local cooperation. Its mission is not possible without the generous support from RULE, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI), and other partner institutions through project-based research and academic collaboration. We are proud that the Center is a non-monitoring research center that works to bring about positive changes through high-quality education and research. It is arguably the only university-based research center of its kind in Cambodia and employs leading researchers in the fields of international humanitarian law, international criminal justice, and human rights.

In addition, a law clinic program, known as Clinical Legal Education (CLE), has been embedded in ELBBL since 2016 by introducing the professional legal skills course in its curriculum for the final-year students. CLE is an experiential learning program (learning by doing) in which law students can gain practical skills and deliver legal service to the local community in a social justice environment. The program reflects the understanding that the role of universities is not only to produce human resources but also to produce a direct positive impact in community and society.

It is worth mentioning that there are two student-run groups that have supported our students and worked closely with our alumni. First, the Cambodian ILSA Chapter is an independent student-run group attached to ELBBL that aims to help ELBBL students expand their knowledge of public international law and develop their legal research, writing, and advocacy skills. The Chapter is operated by 5 to 9 students each year, one of whom is the Chief of the Chapter, and is supervised by an ELBBL faculty member. The Chapter organizes lectures, moot court training, workshops, and field studies. The moot court training is held annually to help students prepare themselves for moot competitions by developing the necessary skills. Another student group is the ELBBL Crew, which is a student-run group operating under a student council system to assist the ELBBL program in planning, undertaking, and organizing extra-curricular activities. ELBBL Crew was created with the aim to bring passionate, hardworking, and well-deserved law students into an advanced student council-like environment as well as to confer students an opportunity to develop their leadership and soft skills through organizing and carrying out school activities and other related projects.

The latest milestone in the development of our program is the establishment of the English Language-Based Master of Law Program (ELBML) in 2020. It is a product of RULE’s broad and long-term vision to enhance English language-based legal education in Cambodia toward a quality comparable to top graduate law programs in the region and elsewhere. To that end, ELBML strives to compete with LL.M. programs overseas by incorporating comprehensive coursework on key legal subjects and research into its curriculum while empowering students to participate in national and international moot competitions as well as relevant extra-curricular activities.