Open AccessAlthough the course of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is increasingly popular in China, ESP courses today are no more than teaching specific words and phrases and translating texts following the traditional grammar-translation method. With China’s active participation in the international affairs, more importance is expected to be attached to the design of ESP courses that can be facilitative in preparing learners for their future career in an international context. Under such circumstance, this paper is intended to offer a layout principle of ESP course design tailored for Chinese university law students based on Content-based instruction (CBI) approach. It first reviews conceptual notions regarding CBI and then move to look into related issues concerning the current ESP course design. Admittedly, these issues can be viewed from differential angles in diverse ESP contexts, the proposed framework for ESP course design is expected to be beneficial to teachers who are engaged in ESP course development.