As many readers of this blog know, there are two broad legal traditions followed by most of the jurisdictions in the world, namely common law and civil law. Yet, things are not as simple when lawyers have to deal with laws of another jurisdiction, especially if that jurisdiction is part of a different legal tradition. There are many instances in comparative law when the same legal terms have different meanings, or different legal terms have the same legal effect, causing confusion for lawyers and their clients. This confusion is especially significant when civil law lawyers must deal with the common law or vice versa. Although the civil law system and the common law system have many issues handled in the same way, there are still major differences between the two legal systems in terms of their legal structures, classifications, basic concepts, and terminologies. This post seeks to argue that it is important for the international legal practitioners to have a better knowledge of the civil law system, mostly because of the crucial role of Hong Kong (a common law jurisdiction) as an international arbitration centre. To facilitate this, law schools in Hong Kong should give more attention to researching on civil law systems and educating law students on the operation of civil law.