Rehan Abeyratne & Po Jen Yap on Constitutional Dismemberments, Basic Structure Doctrine, and Pragmatic Justifications in Context (Int'l J Const L)

"Constitutional dismemberments, basic structure doctrine, and pragmatic justifications in context: A rejoinder"

Rehan Abeyratne & Po Jen Yap
International Journal of Constitutional Law, 

Published on 6 October 2022

Introduction: Our article “Judicial Self-Dealing and Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in South Asia” focused on the Bangladesh Supreme Court’s Appellate Division (AD) judgment in Bangladesh v. Asaduzzaman Siddiqui, which struck down the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Bangladesh (1972). The Sixteenth Amendment restored an original constitutional provision but was nonetheless held unconstitutional for violating the Constitution’s basic structure. We argued that Siddiqui, though facially problematic, could be defended on both theoretical and pragmatic grounds. First, we argued that the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution could be characterized as a “constitutional dismemberment” that created a new constitutional settlement from which the Sixteenth Amendment had unconstitutionally deviated. Second, we noted that the Sixteenth Amendment raised the specter of undue political interference in judicial removals by transferring the removal power from a judge-led Supreme Judicial Council to Parliament. Given Bangladesh’s checkered history of partisan executive interference with the judiciary, we also contended that the AD was justified in striking down the amendment on pragmatic grounds...

HKU Law Call for Papers: The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research: Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions (due: 30 Nov 2022)

The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research:

Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions

CALL FOR PAPERS

Empirical studies of the Chinese legal system have proliferated in recent decades. This trend has only been accelerated by greater generation of data on the one hand and methodological innovations in the social sciences on the other. Empirical legal research promises to enrich our understanding of legal phenomenon and to furnish a knowledge base for debating legal doctrine and theory. But the apparent objectivity of numbers can also mislead those unfamiliar with the assumptions and extrapolations underlying many of the conclusions drawn from quantitative research. To foster critical and constructive discussion about this emerging field, the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law will host a conference on " The Empirical Turn in Chinese Legal Research: Challenges, Strategies, and Solutions" to be held in-person at the University’s Centennial Campus on 9 and 10 January 2023. The conference organizer will cover the lodging and travel expenses of all invited speakers.

Submissions may address one or more of the following topics:

• Data generation and collection
• Methodological choices and trade-offs
• The generalizability or representativeness of small or local samples
• The relationship between empirical and theoretical or doctrinal research

Submission requirements:

The submission must address the topic of the call for papers, including but not limited to the topics listed above.  Proposals may be submitted as drafts or abstracts of approximately 500 words.

Submissions should be made through the following form on or before 30 November 2022: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5mr7O0rwf7l6JLw

Acceptances will be communicated by 7 December 2022. In addition, a special issue of the Hong Kong Law Journal will be dedicated to the proceedings of the conference. Submissions may be revised before publication. Final manuscripts are due 30 April 2023. All enquiries should be addressed to Ms. Yin Xiaohan at yxh0222@connect.hku.hk.

Welcome to HKU Law's Global Academic Fellow Dr Cynthia Farid

Welcome to Dr Cynthia Farid who joined the Faculty of Law as a Global Academic Fellow. Dr Farid is a legal historian and a lawyer with longstanding experience in research, legal practice as well as a range of international development and rule of law programming with INGOs, think tanks, and legal rights organizations. Having completed her bar in the United Kingdom and Bangladesh, she graduated with advanced degrees from Cornell Law School (LLM) and the University of Wisconsin Law School (SJD).

     Prior to joining HKU Law as a Global Academic Fellow in 2022, Dr Farid was practicing as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and had been working with the Human Rights Forum Bangladesh, a coalition of 20 human rights NGOs, to support its engagement with the United Nations Committee against Torture and the Universal Periodic Review.  She is also a member of Gray's Inn, London.

      Dr Farid’s research interests include socio-legal history, constitutional and administrative law, law and development (with a focus on South Asia), and knowledge production processes in the Global South. She is also the organizer of two International Research Collaboratives of the Law and Society Association on South Asian Legal Systems and Scholars in the Global South respectively, that have brought together scholars from around the globe to work on collaborative projects.

      Dr Farid has published in a number of international journals and has secured a book contract with Hart Publishing in its “Constitutional Systems of the World” series for a co-authored book titled The Constitution of Bangladesh: A Contextual Analysis with an anticipated publication date of 2023. As a Global Academic Fellow, she plans to expand on and publish her doctoral research (titled “Imperial Constitutionalism: Judicial Politics in Colonial India (1861-1935)”) into a book-length monograph.    

New Edition by Eric Ip: Law and Justice in Hong Kong: Principles of the Legal System (4th Edition) (Sweet & Maxwell)

Law and Justice in Hong Kong: Principles of the Legal System (4thEdition)
Eric Ip
Sweet & Maxwell
Published in September 2022
507 pp.

'This book, Law and Justice in Hong Kong, has become an indispensable reference for anyone interested in or working with the Hong Kong legal system.'

Madam Justice Beverley McLachlin PC, CC, CStJ, Non–Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, Chief Justice of Canada (2000–2017)

Thoroughly rewritten and updated, the fourth edition of Law and Justice in Hong Kong continues to offer readers a comprehensive account of the legal system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China—the only common law jurisdiction in East Asia. Featuring discussions of the latest case law, the COVID-19 pandemic, and watershed legal events in recent years, it enables readers to appreciate the fundamental principles of law and the administration of justice that drove Hong Kong’s historic transition from a fishing settlement into a leading international financial centre over the course of nearly two centuries. 

An essential text for students studying Legal System and Legal Research, this book is useful also to legal practitioners, jurists, and general readers, both in Hong Kong and abroad, who find interest in the spectacle of an internationalised common law system operating under the sovereignty of the world’s most powerful socialist state.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Vol. 52, Part 2 of 2022)

                                         HONG KONG LAW JOURNAL

Vol. 52, Part 2 of 2022

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Analysis

Combatting Intimate Image Abuse in Hong Kong 

Thomas Crofts... 405

Lecture

Words to Law Students, Lawyers and the Public 

Kemal Bokhary... 431

Articles

Judge Unanimity: Can a Panel of Judges Constituted under theNational Security Law Return a Majority Verdict? 

Danian A. Wan and Trevor T. W. Wan... 439

The Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) has introduced into Hong Kong’s crim-inal justice system a novel method of trial in the Court of First Instance for cases involving offences endangering national security. Article 46(1) of the NSL empow-ers the Secretary for Justice to, under specified circumstances, issue a certificate directing the case to be tried by a panel of three judges instead of a jury. However, the NSL does not make clear the threshold required for the panel of three judges to return an effective verdict — whether unanimity is called for or whether a majority verdict is available to convict the accused. This article engages this question by un-dertaking an interpretive analysis of the relevant provisions to ascertain a legally defensible answer. It argues that the common law principle of jury unanimity, originating from twelfth-century English law and preserved as part of the Hong Kong common law, supplements the NSL and provides solid support for unanimity as the correct legal position. The same conclusion can also be reached by constru-ing different provisions of the NSL as a coherent whole in tandem with other con-stitutional and statutory instruments including the Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights.

Departure from International Human Rights Law and Comparative Best Practice: HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit  

Yan-ho Lai and Thomas E. Kellogg... 465

Reshaping the Stock Market to Accommodate Chinese BusinessGiants: The Reintroduction of Weighted Voting Shares in Hong Kong  

Fa Chen ... 487

Competition Law: An Exception to Human Rights? 

Stephen Crosswell... 513

Legal Convergence in the Greater Bay Area through Liberalisation of the Legal Services Market and Cooperation in Dispute Resolution Services  

Yun Zhao and Hui Chen... 555

This article analyses the process and implications of legal convergence in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Existing models for legal convergence are not directly ap-plicable to the GBA, due to operation of the “one country, two systems” principle. This article, therefore, explores pathways to legal convergence from the perspec-tives of promoting diversified dispute resolution and resolving inter-regional legal conflicts across three jurisdictions. It argues that an innovative legislation mecha-nism should be introduced to address inter-regional legal conflicts, amend arbitra-tion rules and clarify ambiguous provisions in existing cooperative agreements. In addition, it is recommended that legal service resources across the GBA be consoli-dated with cooperation mechanisms and establishment of an international arbi-tration centre and that GBA governments support further liberalisation of the legal services market and strengthen cooperation between arbitration institutions.

Case Studies of Securities Fraud in the VietnameseSecurities Market  

Toan Minh Le, Gordon Walker, Ha Hai Duong, and Trang Huu Tran... 583

China Law

“Visit Your Parents”: How Chinese Courts Apply the Elderly 

Law Luxue Yu... 615

Judicial Regulation of Standard Form Contracts in China 

Yuxuan Wang... 641

Extraterritorial Aspects of the Fundamental Rights Articlesin the Constitution of China 

Liang Yu and Fons Coomans... 683

Dancing in Chains: Reassessing China’s Foreign InvestmentLegislation (Part I) 

Li Yang, Hui Pang and Charlie Xiao-chuan Weng... 709

Force Majeure under Chinese Law as Applied to Port TerminalOperations 

Haifan Yang and Ling Zhu... 731

Valuation Adjustment Mechanism in China: A Risk Management Strategy or Risk- Triggering Device? Xuedan (Shelly) Xiong... 757

Book Review

Divorce in China: Institutional Constraints and Gendered Outcomes by Xin He [New York University Press, 2021, 304pp, hardback, US$65] ISBN 147980553X  

Sida Liu... 785

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Vol. 52, Part 1 of 2022)

HONG KONG LAW JOURNAL

Vol. 52, Part 1 of 2022

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Lecture

Food, Clothing and Housing as Human Rights 

Kemal Bokhary… 1

Articles

The 2019 Rendition Saga in Hong Kong: A Perspective on the Tensions Inherent in “One Country, Two Systems”

Fan Xiang… 9

The 2019 political storm in Hong Kong, triggered by resistance to a proposed law that would have created an institutional channel for the extradition of fugi¬tives from Hong Kong to Mainland China, resulted in the most severe and prolonged civil unrest in this city since China resumed exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. This article considers the nature of the 2019 rendi¬tion saga in the context of the tensions inherent in the constitutional framework of “One Country, Two Systems”. It is contended that there are contradictions within the structure of the “One Country, Two Systems” formula such that it encourages and yet limits a Western-style liberal democracy in Hong Kong. It is argued that the prolonged anti-extradition movement is no more than a reflection of the internal contradictions of “One Country, Two Systems” but in a more ferocious way than before. If this paradox is not resolved properly, it is doomed to plague Hong Kong in the future.

Recordation and Review by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee under the Hong Kong Basic Law 

Paul Law and Trevor Wan… 43

This article explores the Recordation and Review Mechanisms anchored in art 17(2) and 17(3) of the Basic Law which provides for the obligation of Hong Kong to report enacted laws to the China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) for the record and the NPCSC’s corresponding powers to review and return any such laws. We argue that the Recordation and Review Mechanisms are an interconnected set of constitutional enforcement mecha¬nisms for the NPCSC to police the constitutional limits of Hong Kong’s auton¬omy. Furthermore, we highlight and examine two ambiguities in art 17(2) and 17(3), namely the lack of any mention of conditions under which the art 17(3) review process could be triggered and the ambiguous legal status of reported laws that have not been returned by the NPCSC. This article then undertakes a comparative study vis-a-vis the Chinese Filing and Review System, China’s key legislative supervisory system, which we argue is indispensable in fully understanding the operation of Hong Kong’s Recordation and Review Mechanisms and resolve the two ambiguities highlighted. We sketch, drawing on the Chinese Filing and Review System, how the review process could be activated and how NPCSC’s power of review could be reconciled with local courts’ jurisdiction of constitutional review through developing a framework elucidating the proper judicial responses to a “passive confirmation” by the NPCSC in not returning a submitted law under different circumstances.

The CISG and its Extension to a Territorial Unit of a Contracting State: The Case of HongKong 

Liu Qiao… 67

A Sophisticated Solution for Overlapping Maritime Areas: Is Joint Development Keyfor the East China Sea? 

Horus Qi, Pengfei Zhang and Tingting Ni… 89

Parent Company’s Joint Liability in Tort: An Alternative to Manage Corporate Tort Problems 

Xue Feng… 117

The Unity of Non-territoriality in Outer Space versus the Diversity of Territoriality in Intellectual Property: A Reconciliation Regime for Sustainable Space Commercialization 

Chen Zhijie… 157

No-Fault Divorce: The Right Direction towards Therapeutic Justice 

Leon Vincent Chan and Andrea Ang Si Min… 183

Regulating Weighted Voting Rights in Asia: Pragmatism or a Race to the Bottom?

Charlie Weng Xiaochuan… 209

Diversity of Mediation and its Impact on the Singapore Mediation Convention

Cai Wei… 237

China Law

The Doctrine of  Kompetenz-Kompetenz: A Sino-French Comparative Perspective 

Fu Panfeng… 259

The Mandatory Bid Rule’s Dispensation Regime for the Gratuitous Transfer of State-owned Shares in China: An Analysis from the Perspective of Efficiency 

Xue Renwei… 289

The Autonomy of Charities in China 

Hui Jing… 323

The Charity Law, which was promulgated in 2016, creates a public law-pri¬vate law hybrid model for the regulation of charities in China. The incorpora¬tion of private law norms into the new legislative framework demonstrates the state’s willingness to confer greater autonomy on charitable actors with regard to determining how their assets can be utilised for charitable purposes. This article analyses the associated post-2016 regulatory framework and outlines the extent to which private actors can voluntarily engage in charitable activities after the passage of the new charity law. It also reports the way in which the new regulatory framework has been implemented in practice based on data col¬lected through semi-structured interviews. Observations associated with regula¬tory practices suggest that the political philosophy underlying the new regulatory framework remains unchanged: strict government control remains predomi¬nant, and the scope for private actors to exercise their management rights is still considerably limited.

Unravelling the Paradigm Shift of Imposing Capital Punishment for Property Offences in Early Qing Dynasty

Meng Ye and Chen Li… 351

Government as a Platform Chinese Style: The Health Code in China’s Rapidly Developing Digital Ecosystem

June Wang Zhiqiong… 367

Book Review

Towering Judges: A Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges

Evan Rosevear... 397

Transnational Sex-Trafficking

Patricia Ho… 403

New Book by Melissa Loja (PhD 2018): International Agreements between Non-State Actors as a Source of International Law (Hart)

International Agreements between Non-State Actors as a Source of International Law

Melissa Loja (PhD 2018)

Bloomsbury

272 pp.

Published in September 2022

This book examines whether international agreements between non-state actors can be identified as a source of international law using objective criteria. It asks whether, beyond Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, there is a system of rules, processes, beliefs or semantics by which these agreements can be objectively identified as a source of international law. Departing from the more usual state-centric analysis, it adopts postmodern legal positivism as its analytical tool. This allows for the reality that international law-making takes place in subjective social landscapes. To test the effectiveness of this approach, it is applied to agreements between petroleum agencies and corporations which allow two or more states to exploit disputed resources across boundaries looking in particular at arrangements involving China, Vietnam and the Philippines. By so doing it illustrates an alternative way that states can manage disputes, without having to resort to conflict. It will appeal to both scholars and practitioners of public international law, as well as civil servants.

HKU CCPL Newsletter Fall 2022

 

Dear friends,  Greetings from the Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) at The University of Hong Kong!       2022 has remained a challenging year so far, but CCPL continues to curate and showcase our events via Zoom.      In this Newsletter, we are pleased to share with you highlights from the events we held last semester as well as information on upcoming events for Fall 2022.      We look forward to seeing you soon at our events - in person or on zoom! With best wishes,  Prof Po Jen Yap  Professor of Law  Director, Centre for Comparative and Public Law  Faculty of Law  The University of Hong Kong

PAST EVENTS

17 January 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal Globalization and the Subversion of Liberal Democracy (OUP, 2021) with the author – Rosalind Dixon & David Landau Authors Prof Rosalind Dixon Professor of Law Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales Prof David Landau Mason Ladd Professor and Associate Dean for International Programs College of Law, Florida State University Discussant Prof Stephen Gardbaum Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law UCLA School of Law Chair Prof Po Jen Yap Professor and Director of CCPL Faculty of Law, HKU

Law is fast globalizing as a field, and many lawyers, judges and political leaders are engaged in a process of comparative "borrowing". But this new form of legal globalization has dark sides: it is not just a source of inspiration for those seeking to strengthen and improve democratic institutions and policies. It is increasingly an inspiration - and legitimation device - for those seeking to erode democracy by stealth, under the guise of a form of faux liberal democratic cover. Abusive Constitutional Borrowing: Legal Globalization and the Subversion of Liberal Democracy outlines this phenomenon, how it succeeds, and what we can do to prevent it. This book address current patterns of democratic retrenchment and explores its multiple variants and technologies, considering the role of legitimating ideologies that help support different modes of abusive constitutionalism.

25 January 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Democracies and International Law (CUP, 2021) with the author – Tom Ginsburg Author Prof Tom Ginsburg Leo Spitz Professor of International Law Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar Professor of Political Science University of Chicago Discussants Prof Simon Chesterman Dean and Provost’s Chair Professor Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore Ms Kelley Loper Associate Professor Faculty of Law, HKU Chair Prof Po Jen Yap Professor and Director of CCPL Faculty of Law, HKU

Democracies and authoritarian regimes have different approaches to international law, grounded in their different forms of government. As the balance of power between democracies and non-democracies shifts, it will have consequences for international legal order. Human rights may face severe challenges in years ahead, but citizens of democratic countries may still benefit from international legal cooperation in other areas. Ranging across several continents, this volume surveys the state of democracy-enhancing  international law, and provides ideas for a way forward in the face of rising authoritarianism.

28 March 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Understanding Administrative Law in the Common Law World (OUP, 2021) with the author – Paul Daly Author Prof Paul Daly Chair in Administrative Law & Governance Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa Discussants Ms Cora Chan Associate Professor Faculty of Law, HKU Prof Jason N E Varuhas Professor of Law Faculty of Law, University of Melbourne Chair Mr Julius Yam Assistant Professor Faculty of Law, HKU

Around the common law world, the law of judicial review of administrative action has changed dramatically in recent decades, accelerating a centuries-long process of incremental evolution. This book offers a fresh framework for understanding the core features of contemporary administrative law. Through comparative analysis of case law from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, and New Zealand, the author develops an interpretive approach by reference to four values: individual self-realisation, good administration, electoral legitimacy, and decisional autonomy. The interaction of this plurality of values explains the structure of the vast field of judicial review of administrative action: institutional structures, procedural fairness, substantive review, remedies, restrictions on remedies, and the scope of judicial review. Addressing this wide array of subjects in detail, the book demonstrates how a pluralist approach, with the values being employed in a complementary and balanced fashion, can enhance our understanding of administrative law. Furthermore, such an approach can guide the future development of the law of judicial review of administrative action, a point illustrated by a careful analysis of the unsettled doctrinal area of legitimate expectation. The book closes by arguing that the author's values-based, pluralist framework supports the legitimacy of contemporary administrative law which, although sometimes called into question, facilitates the flourishing of individuals, of public administration, and of the liberal democratic system.

8 April 2022

CCPL Roundtable on Overseas Non-Permanent Judges in the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Participants Mr Victor Dawes SC Chairman, Hong Kong Bar Association Dr Anna Dziedzic Postdoctoral Fellow, Laureate Program In Comparative Constitutional Law, Melbourne Law School Mr Alan Hoo SC Chairman, Basic Law Institute Prof Po Jen Yap Professor and Director of CCPL Faculty of Law, HKU Prof Simon NM Young Professor and Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Law, HKU Moderator Prof Fu Hualing Warren Chan Professor in Human Rights and Responsibilities  Dean, Faculty of Law, HKU   With Lord Robert Reed and Lord Patrick Hodge's recent resignations as non-permanent judges of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, this roundtable will explore the implications of this development and offer insights on the future evolution of our overseas non-permanent judges system in Hong Kong.

28 April 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Principles and Laws in World Politics: Classical Chinese Perspectives on Global Conflict (World Scientific Publishing 2021) with the author – Walter Lee Author Prof Walter Lee Assistant Professor School of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Metropolitan University Discussant Prof Daniel A Bell Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration, Shandong University (Qingdao)   Chair Dr Zhu Han Research Assistant Professor Faculty of Law, HKU

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, global conflicts have been satisfactorily resolved neither by communism nor liberalism. Military intervention, however justified, has destabilised many societies, leaving justice undone. This book invites debates on the post-liberal imagination of “emancipated Leviathan”: an almighty political authority which exercises awe and force to restore order, as well as enshrines globally-negotiated values of common conscience and reinvented cosmopolitanism. Human well-being will truly become reality when we synergise pre-modern and pre-liberal ways of thinking, worldviews, ethics, and aesthetic styles by means of cross-civilisational, cross-disciplinary fundamental research, and let an emancipated Leviathan exercises principles and laws of virtue derived from the study. The starting point of such intellectual innovation is China. This book explores the application of classical Chinese resources to the innovation of thoughts in contemporary Chinese international relations (IR). It examines whether “Knowledge Archaeology of Chinese International Relations” (KACIR), coined by the author, responds sensibly to today’s issues of international ethics and global justice. The book contends that emancipative hermeneutics holds the key to the Chinese soft power puzzle. A bottom-up, non-nationalistic, and non-ethnocentric approach to the Chinese civilisation will reinvent intellectual pluralism and cosmopolitan elements in the Chinese tradition that interact constructively with and ultimately transcend the liberal Western model.

11 May 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Constitutionalism in Context (CUP, 2022) with the contributors Contributors: Prof David S Law E. James Kelly, Jr., Class of 1965 Research Professor of Law University of Virginia Prof Albert Chen Cheng Chan Lan Yue Professor and Chair of Constitutional Law Faculty of Law, HKU Prof Mara Malagodi Assistant Professor Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Asia often receives short shrift in the field of comparative constitutional law, but Constitutionalism in Context takes the opposite approach: it sets out to demonstrate that there is no better way to cover emerging and cutting-edge debates in the field than to study Asia. Albert Chen’s chapter on China problematizes two concepts at the core of the field—namely, “constitution” and “constitutionalism.” China’s efforts to articulate a normatively appealing “constitutionalism with Chinese characteristics” raise the question of whether and how the field will expand and adapt to increasingly diverse real-world uses of constitutional law. David Law’s chapter uses the case of Taiwan to explore new extremes in judicial power and judicial review: in striking down and even authoring constitutional amendments, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court has redefined the limits of judicial power. Mara Malagodi’s chapter highlights the deep tension in constitutional law between enshrinement of national identity and community values, on the one hand, and respect for global norms and international law, on the other, as demonstrated by Nepal’s approach to questions of religious freedom and gender equality.

24 & 25 May 2022

Zoom Conference: COVID-19, Borders, and the Law PANEL 1: Border Restrictions, Quarantine, and Human Rights Derogations   “A Human Rights-Based Approach to Stop a Pathogen at Borders” - Martin Scheinin (European University Institute)   “Travel Restrictions and International Freedom of Movement”  - Fernando Dias Simões (Chinese University of Hong Kong)   “Lived Experience of Australia’s International and Domestic Covid-19 Border Closures”  - Kate Ogg (Australian National University) and Olivera Simic (Griffith University)   Chair: Po Jen Yap (HKU Law)   PANEL 2: Pandemic Treaties and Travel Restrictions: The Present and Future   “An Assessment of the Effectiveness of the International Health Regulations in the Response to Covid-19” - Susan Breau (University of Victoria, Canada)   “Evolving Understandings of the Effectiveness of International Border Control Measures During the Covid-19 Pandemic” - Karen Grépin (HKU School of Public Health)   “Digital Capacity and the Proposed International Pandemic Preparedness Treaty”  - Calvin Ho (HKU Law)   Chair: Eric Ip (HKU Law)   PANEL 3: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Pandemics and Border Control   “After Covid-19: States, Borders and the New Politics of Exclusion” - Matthew Longo (Leiden University)rtin Scheinin (European University Institute)   “Border Governance, Shadow Exchanges, and Biosecurity During Covid-19”  - Tak-Wing Ngo (University of Macau)   “Inbound Quarantine Regulations in Colonial Hong Kong”  - Christopher Szabla (HKU Law)   Chair: Michael Ng (HKU Law)   PANEL 4: The Impact of Covid-19 on Migrants and Refugees “Migration in the Mediterranean at the Time of the Pandemic” - Sofia Galani (Panteion University, Greece)   “How Covid-19 Reinforced Existing Challenges to the Protection of Forced Migrants: Examples from South America” - Liliana Jubilut (Universidade Católica de Santos, Brazil)   “Citizenship, the Exclusive State, and the Transboundary Pandemic: Covid-19 and Migrants in Southeast Asia”  - Sriprapha Petcharamesree (Mahibol University, Thailand)   Chair: Kelley Loper (HKU Law)

22 - 24 June 2022

Comparative Equality Law in a Post-Pandemic World: Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law 2022 Hong Kong Conference   The conference focused on what the pandemic has revealed about the causes and nature of inequalities around the world. Calls to tackle deep-seated structural and intersectional discrimination have increased in recent years, but so has the backlash. In some places we see attempts to dismantle hard-won, progressive legal and policy change. In others, ongoing efforts to achieve reform have stalled. With these realities in mind, the conference considered possibilities for crafting effective responses as we move forward in a vastly unequal post-pandemic world. The conference featured 3 keynote presentations, 4 other plenary discussions, and 23 parallel workshops with 150+ experts from over 25 countries.

Keynotes Speakers

“New Directions for Equality in a Post Covid World” Jayna Kothari Founder-Director Centre for Law and Policy Research Bangalore, India

“Microverse, Mezzoverse, Macroverse: Protection against Discrimination in an Artificialized World?” Vitit Muntarbhorn Professor Emeritus Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand

“From Disabled Justice to Disability Justice: the Practice of China” Zhang Wanhong Professor of Jurisprudence Wuhan University School of Law Wuhan, China

Plenary Discussions   “Judicial Perspectives on Transforming Equality” Beverley McLachlin (Former Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court) Geoffrey Ma (Former Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal) “Let’s Get Equality Out of the Box!” Puja Kapai and Naina Kapur Raihana Ataaee, Lilla Farkas Csilla, Paola Catricura Nancuvil, and Thenmozhi Soundararajan   “[Book Talk] Exponential Inequalities: Equality Law in Times of Crisis” Shreya Atrey and Sandra Fredman (eds) Kelley Loper, Colm O’Cinneide, Beth Gaze, Alysia Blackham, and Jule Mulder   “Global Data on Anti-discrimination Laws in all 193 UN Countries: How Far Have We Come and Where are the Greatest Gaps” Jody Heymann, Aleta Sprague, and Willetta Waisath

28 July 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Decoupling: Gender Injustice in China’s Divorce Courts (CUP, 2022) with the author – Ethan Michelson Author Prof Ethan Michelson Professor of Sociology Indiana University Bloomington   Discussants Prof Sida Liu Associate Professor of Sociology University of Toronto Dr Qian Liu Assistant Professor of Sociology University of Calgary Chair Dr Ying Xia Assistant Professor Faculty of Law, HKU

Ethan Michelson's book analyzes almost 150,000 divorce trials in China and reveals routine and egregious violations of China's own laws upholding the freedom of divorce, gender equality, and the protection of women's physical security. Using 'big data' computational techniques to scrutinize cases covering 2009–2016 from all 252 basic-level courts in two Chinese provinces, Henan and Zhejiang, Michelson reveals that women have borne the brunt of a dramatic intensification since the mid-2000s of a decades-long practice of denying divorce requests. This book takes the reader upstream to the institutional sources of China's clampdown on divorce and downstream to its devastating and highly gendered human toll, showing how judges in an overburdened court system clear their oppressive dockets at the expense of women's lawful rights and interests.

UPCOMING EVENTS

6 September 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies (Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies) (University of Michigan Press, 2022) Author Prof Elvin Ong Assistant Professor of Political Science Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Opposing Power argues that perceptions of regime vulnerability and mutual dependency by opposition elites shape the building of opposition alliances. When electoral autocracies are consistently dominant, opposition parties eschew fully fledged alliances. At best, they allocate only one candidate to contest against the incumbent in each subnational electoral district to avoid splitting the opposition vote. However, when multiple regime-debilitating events strike within a short period of time, thus pushing an incumbent to the precipice of power, opposition elites expect victory, accepting costly compromises to build alliances and seize power. Opposing Power shows how oppositions build these alliances through case study comparisons in East and Southeast Asia—between the Philippines and South Korea in the late 1980s, and between Malaysia and Singapore from 1965 to 2020.

16 September 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Governing and Ruling: The Political Logic of Taxation in China (China Understandings Today) (University of Michigan Press, 2021) Author Prof Zhang Changdong Professor of Political Science Peking University

Rapid social economic changes, the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, or even economic liberalization can lead to political instability and the collapse of authoritarian regimes. Despite experiencing all of these unprecedented changes in the past forty years, China under the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership has so far successfully transformed and improved both its governance capacity and its ruling capacity. Governing and Ruling addresses this regime resilience puzzle by examining the political logic of its taxation system, especially the ways in which taxation helps China handle three governance problems: maneuvering social control, improving agent discipline, and eliciting cooperation. Changdong Zhang argues that a taxation system plays an important role in sustaining authoritarian rule, in China and elsewhere, by combining co-optation and repression functions. The book collects valuable firsthand and secondhand data; studies China’s taxation system, intergovernmental fiscal relationships, composition of fiscal revenue sources, and tax administration; and discusses how each dimension influences the three governance problems.

27 October 2022

Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997) (CUP 2022) Author Dr Michael Ng Associate Professor Faculty of Law, HKU

Drawing on archival materials, Michael Ng challenges the widely accepted narrative that freedom of expression in Hong Kong is a legacy of British rule of law. Demonstrating that the media and schools were pervasively censored for much of the colonial period and only liberated at a very late stage of British rule, this book complicates our understanding of how Hong Kong came to be a city that championed free speech by the late 1990s. With extensive use of primary sources, the free press, freedom of speech and judicial independence are all revealed to be products of Britain's China strategy. Ng shows that, from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, Hong Kong's legal history was deeply affected by China's relations with world powers. Demonstrating that Hong Kong's freedoms drifted along waves of change in global politics, this book offers a new perspective on the British legal regime in Hong Kong.