Susan Finder (Adjunct Professor)
South China Morning Post
13 October 2015
The tragedy of an injured and malnourished seven-year-old girl from a cross-border family dramatically highlights why Hong Kong needs to express its views on a draft anti-domestic violence law issued by the National People's Congress Standing Committee last month for public comments.
Hong Kong is affected by such legislation because many of the domestic violence cases that occur in the city are found in cross-border families. According to a study in Shenzhen, 55 per cent of Shenzhen families have experienced domestic violence, though it is unclear how many of those families have children who study here in Hong Kong. Many of the domestic violence issues the city faces are also prevalent on the mainland.
Hong Kong has a great deal of expertise in such issues against the backdrop of a multi-ethnic, primarily Chinese society. The city's organisations concerned with children, women, the elderly and ethnic minorities should work with the Law Society or volunteer lawyers to submit comments on the draft legislation, because domestic violence experts who have worked with mainland authorities on improving enforcement have described the draft as disappointing.
Inadequacies with the draft include the following.... Click here to read the article.
Susan Finder (Adjunct Professor)
Supreme People's Court Monitor Blog
13 October 2015
One of the lesser known outcomes of Xi Jinping's trip to the United States is the commitment by the United States government to work with China on judicial reform.
The official White House press release (mirrored in statements by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) states:
the United States and China commit to conduct high-level and expert discussions commencing in early 2016 to provide a forum to support and exchange views on judicial reform and identify and evaluate the challenges and strategies in implementing the rule of law. U.S. participants are to include leading members of the U.S. judiciary, U.S. government legal policy experts, and officials from the Departments of Commerce and Justice and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Chinese participants are to include officials from the Central Leading Group on Judicial Reform, leading members of the Chinese judiciary, and Chinese government legal policy experts. This dialogue is to result in an improvement in the transparency and predictability of the business environment. This dialogue does not replace, duplicate or weaken existing regular bilateral legal and human rights dialogues between the United States and China.
This statement deserves more attention from the legal community than it has received so far. Some brief comments below... Click here to read the full article.
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