HKU Law Welcomes Dr Ying Zhu, Assistant Professor

HKU Law Welcomes Dr Ying Zhu 朱颖, Assistant Professor in the Department of Law.  Dr Zhu’s research focuses on the interaction between international economic law and sustainable development. Her academic interests include international investment law, international trade law and environmental law. She has published articles on Harvard International Law Journal, New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, Columbia Journal of Environmental law, Natural Resources Journal and Nordic Journal of Commercial Law.

     Prior to joining the HKU, Dr Zhu was an assistant professor at Renmin University of China Law School, where she was the Deputy Secretary-General of the Institute of International Commercial Dispute Prevention and Settlement. Dr Zhu was a senior assistant to the president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). She has served as a legal expert in the Chinese delegation of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group III (Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform).

     Dr Zhu holds LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Yale Law School, and a LL.B. degree from China University of Political Science and Law. She received the Howard M. Holtzmann Fund in International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution and the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund at Yale Law School. Her doctoral dissertation “Too Much of Two Good Things: Reconciling the Tension between Investment Protection and Environmental Protection in International Law” won the William T. Ketcham Jr. Prize of the Yale Law School (awarded annually to the best student paper in the field of private international law).

Selected Publications
1. “A Bottom-up Dilemma: International Investment Law and Environmental Governance,” in Vol. 48 Columbia Journal of Environmental Law (forthcoming);

2. “Do Clarified Indirect Expropriation Clauses in International Investment Treaties Preserve Environmental Regulatory Space?,” in Vol. 60.2 Harvard International Law Journal, 377-416 (2019);

3. “Environmental Discrimination in International Investment Law,” in Vol. 51 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 385-433 (2019);

4. “Fair and Equitable Treatment of Foreign Investors in an Era of Sustainable Development,” in Vol. 58.2 Natural Resources Journal, 319-363 (2018);

5. “Corporate Social Responsibility and International Investment Law: Tension and Reconciliation,” in Vol. 2017/1 Nordic Journal of Commercial Law, 90-119 (2017).

Teaching
LLAW3153 China Investment Law
LLAW6186 China Trade Law

HKU Law Welcomes Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Shenghua Lu

HKU Law welcomes interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellow Dr Shenghua Lu! Dr Lu is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in the judicial politics, political economy, and urban studies. His work has appeared in a number of leading journals that specialize in urban studies and political science and in China studies, including Governance, China Quarterly, Urban Studies, Journal of Chinese Political Science, Land Use Policy, Asian Survey. He co-authored a book chapter in the The Palgrave Handbook of Local Governance in Contemporary China. He also writes in Chinese and publishes in top-tier journals in China. Shenghua received the B.A. (2017) and the Ph.D. (2022) from the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University. He was a visiting scholar in the Department of Economics, National Tsinghua University (2017) and the Department of Political Science, Yale University (2021-2022).

HKU Law Welcomes Professor Sida Liu, Professor of Sociology of Law

Welcome to Professor Sida Liu who joined the Faculty of Law as a Professor of Law! Professor Sida Liu 劉思達, LLB, Peking University Law School, 2002, PhD, The University of Chicago, 2009, also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Sociology. Professor Liu’s research interests include sociology of law, Chinese law and society, criminal justice and human rights, law and globalization, and sociolegal theory. He has conducted extensive empirical research on various aspects of China’s legal reform and legal professions. In addition to his empirical work, Professor Liu also writes on theories of law, professions, and social spaces.

     Professor Liu is the author of three books in Chinese and English, including The Lost Polis: Transformation of the Legal Profession in Contemporary China (Peking University Press, 2008), The Logic of Fragmentation: An Ecological Analysis of the Chinese Legal Services Market (Shanghai Joint Publishing Co., 2011), and Criminal Defense in China: The Politics of Lawyers at Work (with Terence C. Halliday, Cambridge University Press, 2016). He has also published many articles in leading law and social science journals, including Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, Law & Policy, Asian Journal of Law and Society, Wisconsin Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Yale Journal of International Law, Journal of Legal Education, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Theory, European Journal of Social Theory, China Quarterly, etc. Most recently, Professor Liu has co-edited The Asian Law and Society Reader (with Lynette J. Chua and David M. Engel, Cambridge University Press, 2023).
     Professor Liu holds external courtesy appointments as Faculty Fellow at the American Bar Foundation, Affiliated Scholar of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University School of Law, Faculty Affiliate of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School, and Vice President of the China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has served as Chair of the Section on Sociology of Law at the American Sociological Association and Board Member of the Law & Society Association, the Asian Law & Society Association, the Canadian Law & Society Association, and the Consortium of Undergraduate Law and Justice Programs. Before joining the HKU faculty, Professor Liu taught at the University of Toronto and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his LLB from Peking University Law School and his PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. In 2016-2017, he was a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His research areas include:

• Sociology of Law
• Chinese Law and Society
• Human Rights
• Law and Globalization

Welcome to Dr Menglu Wang, Postdoctoral Fellow

Welcome to Dr Menglu Wang who joined HKU Faculty of Law to be the postdoctoral fellow, under the RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS) project “Digital Finance, Financial Inclusion and Sustainability: Building Better Financial Systems”.

    Dr Menglu Wang is a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Law, the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include the development and regulation of financial technology (Fintech), with a particular focus on comparative law and Chinese issues. During the postdoctoral period, Menglu will conduct in-depth research on supervisory and regulatory issues relating to digital finance and sustainable development in major Fintech jurisdictions.

     Menglu received her Doctor of Philosophy in Laws from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and participated in several research projects during her PhD. She holds a master’s degree (with distinction) from the University of Sydney Business School, specializing in finance and business law. Menglu passed the national judicial examination in China and obtained the legal professional qualification certificate.  Her research areas include:

• Commercial Corporate and Financial Law
• Comparative Chinese Law
• Information Technology

Shahla Ali et al on Introduction: Reaching Sustainable Diversity in International Arbitration (new book chapter)

"Introduction: reaching sustainable diversity in international arbitration"
Giorgio Fabio Colombo, Shahla F. Ali, Filip Balcerzak, and Joshua Karton

in Diversity in International Arbitration: Why it Matters and How to Sustain It,
ed. by Shahla F. Ali, Filip Balcerzak, Giorgio Fabio Colombo and Joshua Karton  (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022), Chapter 1, pp.2-5

Introduction: For decades, arbitration has been a preferred means for settling cross-border business and investment disputes. Given its inter-, trans-, and to some extent a-national character, there has been a natural and mostly positive trend toward harmonization in the ways arbitration is practiced and in the laws that support the international arbitration system. 

HKU Research Awards in the Law Faculty in 2021-2022

Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner Awarded Outstanding Researcher Award

Congratulations to Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Outstanding Researcher Award (ORA), in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong.  He is also  the recipient of  RGC Senior Research Fellow in 2020, Finalist for edX Prize in 2020, and Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2007.   Currently, he is the Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, as well as the Director of LLM in Compliance and Regulation, and LLM in Corporate and Financial Law, and Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (LITE) Programmes, and is the former Director of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law at the University of Hong Kong, . He served as Head of the HKU Department of Law from 2011 to 2014 and as Co-Director of the Duke University-HKU Asia-America Institute in Transnational Law from 2005 to 2016. Douglas has published eighteen books, including most recently The RegTech Book (Wiley 2019), and Reconceptualising Global Finance and its Regulation (Cambridge 2016); Financial Markets in Hong Kong: Law and Practice (Oxford, 2d ed., 2016), Finance in Asia: Institutions, Regulation and Policy (Routledge 2013), From Crisis to Crisis: The Global Financial Crisis and Regulatory Failure (Kluwer 2011) and Financial Stability, Economic Growth and the Role of Law (Cambridge 2007), and more than 200 articles, chapters and reports on international financial law and regulation. His recent papers are available on SSRN at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=524849, where he is among the top 75 authors in the world by total downloads. Douglas led the development of Introduction to FinTech – launched with edX in May 2018 and now with over 80,000 learners spanning every country in the world. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, and an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE). Douglas was an inaugural member of the Hong Kong Financial Services Development Council (2013-2019) and has served as a consultant with, among others, the United Nations, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, APEC, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has lectured, co-organised conferences and seminars and been involved with financial sector reform projects around the world. He is currently leading a major 5 year Hong Kong Research Grants Council Senior Research Fellowship project on the role of FinTech and RegTech in financial inclusion and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as a 4 year RGC Research Impact Fund project focusing on FinTech policy and regulation. From 2012-2018, Douglas served as Project Coordinator of a major five-year project funded by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Theme-based Research Scheme on “Enhancing Hong Kong’s Future as a Leading International Financial Centre”. He is currently one of the core team of another TRS project focusing on digital finance, financial stability and financial inclusion.  He has been a visiting professor or fellow at Duke, Harvard, the Hong Kong Institute for Monetary and Financial Research, IDC Herzliya, McGill, Melbourne, National University of Singapore, University of New South Wales, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Zurich, among others. 

     Click here to view more on  Kerry Holdings Professor in Law Douglas Arner's work.

Dr Angela Zhang Awarded Outstanding Young Researcher Award

Congratulations to Dr Angela Zhang who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Outstanding Young Researcher Award (OYRA) in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong. She won the Research Output Prize in 2019, in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong, for her scholarly work entitled “The Role of Media in Antirust: Evidence from China,” (2018) 41 Fordham International Law Journal 473-530.

     Currently, she serves as Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong, which promotes legal scholarship with the aims of developing a deeper understanding of China and facilitating dialogue between East and West.  She is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law in the University of Hong Kong. An expert in Chinese law, Angela has written extensively on Chinese regulatory issues. Her first book Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism garnered significant attention during Beijing’s crackdown on Chinese Big Tech and was named a Best Political Economy Book of the Year by ProMarket in 2021. Angela is now working on her second book about China’s model of regulatory governance, which is expected to be released in 2023.

            With a broad research interests in the areas of law and economics, particularly in transnational legal issues bearing on businesses, she as a young researcher has massive research outputs appearing in leading international law reviews such as Harvard International Law Journal, Yale International Law Journal, Stanford International Law Journal, as well as top peer-reviewed journals from other disciplines such as Management Science and China Quarterly.

          She is a four-time recipient of the Concurrence Antitrust Writing Award, which selects the best articles published globally in the field of antitrust law each year. She received a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant (£10,000) in 2014 and two Hong Kong GRF grants, one (HK$637,440) in 2018 and the other (HK$ 656,825) in 2021.

      She is a highly sought-after commentator on Chinese regulatory issues. She often speaks at prestigious antitrust conferences in the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is also frequently interviewed by major international media outlets and regularly contributes commentaries to the popular press.

     Click here to view more on Dr Angela Zhang's work.

Thomas Cheng Awarded Research Output Prize

Congratulations to Thomas Cheng who is the 2021-2022 award recipient of the Research Output Prize  (ROP) in the Faculty of Law, awarded by The University of Hong Kong. The research output prize was for his book, The Patent-Competition Interface in Developing Countries, published by Oxford University Press, in 2021 (544pp). 

     Currently, he is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong, who has written extensively on competition law in developing countries and on the competition law of a number of Asian jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, China, and Japan. His research has appeared in respected specialist U.S. journals, including Chicago Journal of International Law, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Virginia Law & Business Review, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, and in leading competition law journals such as Journal of Antitrust Enforcement and World Competition. In 2020, he published Competition Law in Developing Countries, with Oxford University Press. 

     His research has been recognized internationally. He has been twice awarded the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award in the vertical restraints and antitrust and IP categories. Apart from awards, his stature as a scholar has been recognized through appointments to the executive and advisory boards of a number of leading international competition law organizations such as the American Antitrust Institute and the Academic Society for Competition Law (“ASCOLA”). He has made critical contributions to the development of competition law in Hong Kong. He advised the government extensively during the drafting of the city’s first competition law. He was a member of the inaugural Competition Commission and played a pivotal role in staff recruitment and setting up the Commission.

Kung Hei Fat Choy 2023

To mark the Chinese New Year, I share with you Professor Richard Cullen's annual new year drawings, "Year of the Rabbit", in three different color-papers. Professor Cullen's tradition of drawing his annual cartoon has been going on for over 20 years. He has not missed a year from when it started in 1994 (Year of the Dog).

HKU Legal Scholarship Blog wishes everyone a happy and healthy Year of the Rabbit.

CCPL Newsletter (January 2023)

Dear friends, 

Happy 2023!

This past Fall has been a rewarding and thought-provoking season for us at CCPL.

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 Spring 2023.

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:

28 July 2022 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Decoupling: Gender Injustice in China’s Divorce Courts (CUP, 2022) with the author – Ethan Michelson

6 September 2022 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies (University of Michigan Press, 2022) with the author – Elvin Ong

16 September 2022 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Governing and Ruling: The Political Logic of Taxation in China (University of Michigan Press, 2021) with the author – Zhang Changdong

27 September 2022 - Zoom Webinar: #RaceMeToo: Institutional Declarations of Anti-Racism, but Are They Listening, Do They Care?

24 October 2022 - CCPL Talk: Supreme Courts in the Age of Acute Political Polarization

27 October 2022 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (1842–1997) (CUP, 2022) with the author – Michael Ng

9 November 2022 - Workshop on Hong Kong's Sedition Law

Upcoming Events:

February 2023 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Recentering the World: China and the Transformation of International Law (CUP, 2022)

February 2023 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: A Pandemic of Populists (CUP, 2022)

March 2023 - Zoom Webinar Book Talk: Responsive Judicial Review: Democracy and Dysfunction in the Modern Age (OUP, 2023)

For more details, to view the CCPL newsletter, click here. 

Richard Cullen on The Remarkable Little Red Envelope (China Daily)

"The remarkable little red envelope"
Richard Cullen

China Daily

Published on January 19, 2023 

Introduction: Once upon a time, when I was still in primary school, some relatives visited us in the hot, dusty country town where we lived, about 200 kilometers north of Melbourne, where they also lived. It was shortly before Christmas. My kind, visiting auntie took me aside and gave me a Christmas card. I had never received a personal Christmas card before, so this was already a special day. I was encouraged to open it and when I did, inside there was a rather crisp, 10 shilling note ($0.62). It was a delightful and unique surprise. I had seen such notes before, of course, but I had never actually possessed one myself.

     The memory of this gift remains as vivid as ever. And it came to mind again recently as I prepared a red packet to give, on a special day, to someone close in Hong Kong. That got me thinking about what an uncommonly fine cultural creation the unassuming red envelope has turned out to be.
Click here to read the full text. 

Law Tech Talk: Data Protection and (In)accuracy Emotional AI as a Case Study by Dr Damian Clifford (ANU College of Law), Feb 9 (Thurs), 2023, HKT 1-2pm

Law and Technology Centre

Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong

Data Protection and (In)accuracy

Emotional AI as a Case Study

Dr Damian Clifford

Senior Lecturer, Australian National University College of Law

Date: Thursday, February 9, 2023

Time: 1pm – 2pm (Hong Kong Time)

This event will be conducted via Zoom. Prior registration is required. The link to the webinar will be provided upon successful registration.

Abstract: There is an increasing reliance on digital technologies. From smart phones to smart watches and other internet-enabled consumer products, we are increasingly reliant on technological developments. But these products and services also present challenges and there have been repeated scandals. Underlying such applications is the purported capacity to infer through intensive data processing whereby seemingly innocuous device-related data are processed to reveal sensitive personal inferences.

The purpose of this talk in particular is to explore how inaccurate inferences drawn through the use of such technologies may be understood in data protection law. To contextualise the discussion, this seminar will explore the rise of ‘emotional AI’ or the buzzword now used to refer to the affective computing sub-discipline and more specifically, technologies that aim to detect, classify and respond appropriately to users’ emotional lives thereby appearing to understand their audience in particular. There have been well documented concerns as to the accuracy of these technologies and therefore, they present an excellent case study to set the scene for this talk.

About the speaker: Damian Clifford is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University, College of Law and a chief investigator of the ANU Humanising Machine Intelligence Grand Challenge project and the Socially Responsible Insurance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence ARC Linkage Project. He is also an affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (University of London).

All are welcome!

Please register as soon as possible at
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=86059 

To learn more about the HKU Law and Technology Centre, visit https://www.lawtech.hk.

For enquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at mcgrace@hku.hk / 3917 4727.

Richard Cullen on Why Japan is Not an Acceptable Military Ally (Pearls and Irritations: John Menadue's Public Policy Journal)

"Why Japan is not an acceptable military ally"
Richard Cullen

Pearls and Irritations: John Menadue's Public Policy Journal
Published in January 2023

Introduction: There is some terrible double-foolishness afoot, that is certain to be widely noticed beyond the Western bubble. Australia is stepping forward with gusto to secure its position as a best-military-buddy not only with America, the most warlike nation in history, according to Jimmy Carter, but also with Japan, one of the 20th century’s most infamous warmongers, presently rearming with alarming relish. You are, as they say, known by the company you keep.

     America imposed a Pacificist Constitution on Japan in 1947, after it was defeated in World War II. Article 9 of this constitution outlaws the resort to war by Japan as a means to settle international disputes involving the state.

     There were very good reasons to impose this constitution at that time. And there are still very good reasons, explained below, why this constitution should apply today. But it is useful to consider, first, certain views on the Japanese economic miracle that unfolded following the last war.

     I visited Mainland China, over a period of years, interviewing Gaokao or final year High School students who were applicants to enter undergraduate study at Hong Kong University. We typically quizzed them in groups using a short debate topic. A popular, open-ended topic asked them to discuss their views on Japan. The loathing of Japan’s pitiless historical rule over much of China starting in the 1930s was sharply evident. But this stood alongside candid, pragmatic respect coupled with a measure of admiration for the economic achievements of Japan and the outstanding, reliable quality of the widest range of Japanese products. Furthermore, while Beijing’s influential China Central Television Service has covered the appalling horrors of the Japanese invasion and occupation of China in great depth it has also noted positive aspects of the industrial revolution imposed on China, by Japan.

     Moreover, as China’s open-door policy began to be applied over 40 years ago, after the death of Mao Zedong, Japan played a singular role in the rebuilding of China. Deng Xiaoping first encouraged Panasonic, for example, to come to China during a visit to Japan in 1978. According to a recent report, Panasonic, today, has around 80 subsidiaries in China, employs some 52,000 people and China business (at US$16 billion per year) accounts for about one third of all its business. There are many similar stories.

     We need now, however, to look further back in history.

Click here to view the full text.

Richard Cullen on Public Transport System is One of Hong Kong's Wonders (China Daily HK Edition)

"Public transport system is one of Hong Kong's wonders"

Richard Cullen

China Daily HK Edition

Published on December 15, 2022

Introduction: 

Bloomberg recently reported that Hong Kong has just been ranked as having the best metropolitan public transit system in the world, ahead of Zurich, Stockholm, Singapore and Helsinki. The study on which the report was based surveyed 60 major cities worldwide. It was carried out by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

     Reading this report prompted a short personal reflection. As age advances, I, along with many others, experience what I call “RTS” or “Roving Twinge Syndrome”. Recently, a fresh RTS experience signaled the need to visit a physiotherapist in Causeway Bay from home, also on Hong Kong Island. Within a short walk from our flat, I realized, I had access to two, frequent, virtually door-to-door minibuses; at least four similarly handy double-decker buses; plus another swift minibus ride offered an MTR option. All of these were available (another age factor) at HK$2 (26 cents) a ride. And if even more convenience were needed, there was a nearby taxi rank — with fares less than half those typically charged in other major global cities. Extraordinary, when you think about it. ... Click here to read the full text. 

Shiling Xiao (RPg) & Yang Lin (RPg) on Judicial Review of Administrative Rules in China: Incremental Expansion of Judicial Power (The Journal of Comparative Law)

"Judicial Review of Administrative Rules in China: Incremental Expansion of Judicial Power"
Shiling Xiao  (RPg: currently postdoc) & Yang Lin (RPg: currently ARO) 

The Journal of Comparative Law, Special Part: Issues in Administrative Justice, Volume XVII, Issue 2, pp. 371-392

published in 2022

Abstract: Since 1989 when China adopted its first Administrative Litigation Law (ALL), it had long excluded administrative rulemaking from the court’s purview in administrative litigation, known as the Chinese judicial review of government actions. The courts were not expressly vested with the power to review administrative rules until the first amendment to the ALL in 2014. This article examines the evolution of the Chinese judicial review of administrative rulemaking and the court’s practice in the last seven years (2014-2021). It argues that whereas the judicial empowerment in 2014 is a symbolically significant step toward improving Chinese administrative rulemaking, public accountability, and the rule of law, China has merely established a weak-form judicial review of administrative rules, and the timid and deferential approach of the courts to this new empowerment seriously limits the judicial function of supervising government’s policy-making. This article underlines that judicial review of administrative rules in China is tied to limitations with regard to the scope, intensity and effect of the review. Only administrative normative documents that are at the bottom of the hierarchy of the Chinese legal system and have the lowest legal force are amenable to judicial review. The courts are not expected to scrutinise the reasonableness and proportionality of these documents, and they cannot even strike down invalid ones. They employ the report and record procedure to transfer the decision power to high courts. In practice, the courts declined pleas for reviewing administrative rules in most cases. Even when they accepted the review requests, they seldom closely and effectively scrutinised the substantive content and merits of administrative normative documents. During administrative litigation, they also consulted with the executive authorities and deferred to their opinion. 

Alec Stone Sweet et al on Reversing Delegation? Politicization, De-delegation, and Non-majoritarian Institutions (Governance)

"Reversing delegation? Politicization, de-delegation, and non-majoritarian institutions"
Mark Thatcher, Alec Stone Sweet, and Bernardo Rangoni
Governance

Volume 36, Issue 1,
p. 5-22

Published in October 2022
https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12709 

Abstract: Elected governments and states have delegated extensive powers to non-majoritarian institutions (NMIs) such as independent central banks and regulatory agencies, courts, and international trade and investment organizations, which have become central actors in governance. But, far from having resolved the balance between political control and governing competence or removed certain issues from political debate, NMIs have faced challenges to their legitimacy by elected officials and sometimes attempts to reverse delegation through “de-delegation”. Our special issue studies the politicization of NMIs, and then whether, why and how it leads to de-delegation through reducing the formal powers of NMIs or increasing controls over them. In this article, we examine how to analyze de-delegation, how politicization of NMIs has developed, and how it has affected de-delegation. We underline not only institutional rules that constrain elected officials but also the actions of NMIs themselves and their relationships with other NMIs as part of multi-level governance systems. We find that politicization has varied, but even when strong, elected officials have not introduced widespread and long-lasting de-delegation; on the contrary, they have frequently widened the powers of NMIs. Insofar as elected politicians have sought to curb NMIs, they have often preferred to use existing controls and non-compliance. Finally, we consider the wider implications of the combination of politicization and lack of de-delegation for broader issues of governance such as the division of powers between the elected and unelected and democratic accountability.

The Law and Technology Centre: the symposium “Regulating Social Media Algorithms,” Jan 17, 2023 (Tue), HKT 9am-12:40pm

The Law and Technology Centre is hosting the symposium “Regulating Social Media Algorithms” on Zoom on January 17, 2023. Below are the event details and the Zoom link. We look forward to seeing you at our Zoom event!

Date/Time:	Tuesday, January 17, 2023 | 9am - 12:40pm (Hong Kong Time)
Zoom link:	https://hku.zoom.us/j/96381811161
Program:	https://www.lawtech.hk/regulating-social-media-algorithms/

For enquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at mcgrace@hku.hk / (+852) 3917 4727.

Julien Chaisse & Jamieson Kirkwood on Tokenised Funding and Initial Litigation Offerings: the New Kids Putting Third-party Funding on the Block (Law and Financial Markets Review)

"Tokenised funding and initial litigation offerings: the new kids putting third-party funding on the block"

Julien Chaisse & Jamieson Kirkwood

Law and Financial Markets Review 
Published in December 2022 online

pp.1-23
https://doi.org/10.1080/17521440.2022.2153609

Abstract: This article presents a critical assessment of how blockchain technology is disrupting the monetisation of litigation claims through tokenization – and consequently further shaking up a revolutionary area in litigation financing. The significance in litigation financing is chiefly because tokenization presents securities to the general public in a far more accessible way than was previously the case – and even might enable non-accredited investors to participate in certain litigation financing investments for the first time (or with reduced barriers to entry). The assessment also considers the implications of a litigation pool that was already growing towards USD 20 billion, potentially now getting even larger. We further consider the regulatory challenges and the new moral hazards created in this fast-moving space.

Julien Chaisse & Jamieson Kirkwood on Taxing the Future: Digital Stateless Income, Business Organisation, and the Search for a New Regulatory Paradigm (Singapore Journal of Legal Studies)

"Taxing the Future: Digital Stateless Income, Business Organisation, and the Search for a New Regulatory Paradigm"

Julien Chaisse & Jamieson Kirkwood

Singapore Journal of Legal Studies

Published in September 2022 

pp. 267-289

Abstract: At a time when “stateless income” is the main tax imperative, this article analyses the challenges of internationalising taxation of multinational enterprises in the digital economy and traversing the normative solutions provided so far (and still to be provided) by both coordinated and unilateral rules and policies. In such a way, this article is therefore firmly entrenched at an important intersection of comparative and business law. Considering that the main problem for tax authorities might be that they have remained national—and landlocked—whereas multinational enterprises operate globally—and virtually, this article also brings into the analysis the connected issues of free trade, globalization, and State sovereignty. The article demonstrates the necessity for international and multilateral solutions such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project’s “Two-Pillar” solution and explains how this solution can be supplemented by other multilateral reforms.

Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts on RTHK Agender Café (a Media KE event) to discuss the Report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong (KE)

Introduction: Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts was involved in the research and publication of the report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong. Consequently, Taura (the founder of TALK) and Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts were on RTHK Agender Café (podcast) in November 2022 to discuss the report.  To view the RTHK session on Facebook, click here.

New Report Sheds Light on Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: 
Understanding the Magnitude and Impact of the Problem

Child sexual abuse is a serious and pervasive problem that affects children of all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Unfortunately, despite its prevalence, child sexual abuse is often underreported and misunderstood. In an effort to better understand the magnitude of this issue in Hong Kong, a new report has been released that brings together recent data and trends from surveys and official departments and bureaus records.

     The report, entitled "Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: What We Do and Do Not Know," was produced by TALK Hong Kong, a volunteer peer-led group of women/femme survivors of sexual abuse and assault founded in Hong Kong in 2019. TALK provides support group meetings and undertakes advocacy work on related issues, believing that to tackle child sexual abuse we must understand its causes, scope, scale, and impact. The organization's purpose is to collate the evidence on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong into a single report that can inform the development of prevention efforts.

      This report was produced without any funding and with the pro bono support of, amongst others, Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer at The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law & TALK Hong Kong Advisory Network.

      The report highlights the lack of comprehensive and accurate data on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, which is a barrier to understanding the true extent of the problem and developing effective prevention strategies. However, the report's authors hope that by bringing together the available data and trends, they can make a meaningful contribution to the conversation around child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. They also intend to make this an annual report, to be updated on regular basis and in this way, provide a clearer picture of the situation.

      This inaugural report serves as an important resource for anyone working to understand and address child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the issue and highlights areas where further research is needed. By working together and sharing information, we can hope to make progress in preventing child sexual abuse and providing support to those who have been affected by it.

     Taura Edgar, the founder of TALK Hong Kong and Darcy Davison-Roberts, appeared on RTHK’s Agender Café, where they shared results of the report and the work they've been doing to help bring the issue of child sexual abuse out of the darkness, by providing valuable insights and perspectives on the problem of child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, and discussed the various ways in which individuals and organizations can take action to prevent abuse and support survivors. 
To view the report, click  here. 

To view the RTHK interview, click here. 

Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts: "A HANDBOOK FOR PRACTITIONERS | HONG KONG" (chapter in Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations: A Handbook for Practitioners, KE)

"A HANDBOOK FOR PRACTITIONERS | HONG KONG"
by Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer,
Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
in 
Civil Liability for Human Rights Violations:
A Handbook for Practitioners
pp.1-38 (online version of the Hong Kong Chapter)

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford, led a project on civil liability for human rights violations from 2019 to 2022. Funded by the Oak Foundation, the project involved a comparative study of the legal systems of a wide range of jurisdictions to analyze existing domestic law mechanisms or principles for imposing civil liability on public bodies, corporations, and individuals in three specified categories of human rights violations: (1) assault or unlawful arrest and detention of persons, (2) environmental harm, and (3) harmful or unfair labor conditions.

One of the project’s outcomes is a Handbook for Practitioners. The handbook is intended to serve as a practical resource for understanding when and how civil claims can be used as a tool to vindicate human rights in 19 jurisdictions. The country report for Hong Kong SAR was authored by Darcy Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Law.

Designed for practitioners, the handbook allows readers to refer directly to a specific jurisdiction, with each report following a uniform template. The Editor's Introduction explains the handbook's scope and provides comparative insights drawn from the reports.

The handbook can be downloaded as one complete PDF file or as individual country reports and the Editor's Introduction as separate PDF files. This resource serves as a comprehensive guide for legal professionals and human rights advocates looking to understand and utilize civil liability mechanisms for human rights violations in different countries.

Abstract of the Hong Kong Chapter: Hong Kong is a special administrative region that exists as part of the People’s Republic of China under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle. Until 2047, the legal system of Hong Kong is one of common law inherited from the British colonial government. The judge-decided case law is augmented through ordinances enacted by the Legislative Council. The Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance are the primary statutory sources of fundamental human rights in Hong Kong, but they apply to and bind only public bodies. Civil claims against private actors are commenced based on the common law of torts and statutory remedies.

Introduction of the Hong Kong Chapter:  

1. The legal system of Hong Kong is one of common law, inherited from the British colonial government that governed Hong Kong as a crown colony from 1842 to 1997. Upon the resumption of sovereignty of Hong Kong by the People’s Republic of China in 1997, and under the principle of 'One Country, Two Systems' (1C2S), Hong Kong was designated as a ‘special administrative region’ of the People’s Republic of China and was to enjoy a ‘high degree of autonomy’. Fundamental to the 1C2S principle was the promise that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was to retain its governmental, political and economic systems for 50 years, ending in 2047. This means that the systems implemented by the British colonial government, including the common law legal system, the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and a tradition of protecting human rights, are to remain untouched during this period. Furthermore, all laws in force in Hong Kong at the time of the Handover are to remain in force in the post-Handover period, being the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law, with limited exceptions.

2. While the HKSAR is a common law jurisdiction, the common law, comprised primarily of judge-decided case law, is augmented by way of ordinances (legislative instruments) that are enacted by the HKSAR Legislative Council (LegCo). The Special Administrative Region’s ordinances and subordinate legislation can be accessed through a bilingual, free and searchable database. Additional sources of law in the HKSAR include national law of the People’s Republic, the Basic Law (which is the HKSAR’s constituting document) and interpretations of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (NPCSC), customary law and international law.

3. The HKSAR has an independent judiciary ...

Marcelo Thompson: CERRE Report on Digital Sovereignty and the Normativity of Data Governance with Recommendations (KE)

Photo credit: CERRE’s LinkedIn page

Knowledge Exchange:
Digital Sovereignty and the Normativity of Data Governance (CERRE Report)

The “Global Governance for the Digital Ecosystems” Report was released at the Paris Peace Forum on November 11, 2022, and presented by the project’s co-leads — the Forum’s President, Pascal Lamy (former Director General of the WTO and Board Member at CERRE), and Bruno Liebhaberg (CERRE’s Director General) — to Emmanuel Macron, the President of France.

Dr Marcelo Thompson co-authored the Report’s recommendations on
Data Governance and authored the paper on Digital Sovereignty —
titled: “Digital Sovereignty and the Normativity of Data Governance”.

In the paper, Marcelo identifies the various ways in which extra-legal (political, moral, cultural) considerations pervade data governance debates and challenge the prospects of harmonisation initiatives. The report points nevertheless to the inevitable and often legitimate role played by such considerations and makes concrete recommendations for navigating these.

Introduction: Harmonisation approaches to data governance suggested in earlier papers of this workstream resonate with recent proposals in the scholarly literature advocating for a global data privacy agreement - either as an agreement anchored in the WTO system, or as an expression of a new Digital Bretton Woods agreement.  These proposals respond to difficulties in reconciling differences between global data privacy regimes, as well as between the more substantive regimes among them, and the principles that inform the international trade system.  They speak of ideals of universality that the networks of technology and trade are taken to reflect, given the equalising potential of such networks, as enablers of "development of human capital" and "democratisation of opportunity throughout the world".  As Plato gestured in "The School of Athens", these proposals point up. 

The whole report can be accessed at: https://cerre.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2022/11/GGDE_FulIReport.pdf

Podcast on Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific: hosted by Jane Richards (RPg)

Podcast on 

Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific  (Hart Publishing 2021)

November 25, 2022

Description: While it might ordinarily be assumed that judges who sit on constitutional courts will be local citizens, in the islands of the Pacific, more than three-quarters of judges are foreign. This is book about that unique phenomenon, but a phenomenon that has global implications. Foreign Judges in the Pacific (Hart, 2021) is a comprehensive study which brings together original empirical research, together with legal analysis and constitutional theory, and traces the impact and influence of foreign judging on nine states Pacific states: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

     Dr Anna Dziedzic's study is a cutting-edge and pertinent contribution to constitutional law and jurisprudence. This work brings unique analysis of concepts such as cultural understanding, transnational knowledge sharing, and the importance of nationality in the task of judging. What really drew me to the book and kept me engaged in the work was not just the depth and richness of the study, but that practice of foreign judging in these under-studied Pacific does matter, and has broad lessons for all scholars, policy makers and lawyers who practice and research in all areas of constitutional law. There is a lot to be learnt from this study, and the quality of its analysis will arguably be found to be without parallel.

Interviewee: 

Dr Anna Dziedzic is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School. She researches comparative constitutional law and judicial studies, with a particular focus on the Pacific region.

Host: 

Jane Richards is a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. You can find her on twitter where she follows all things related to human rights and Hong Kong politics @JaneRichardsHK

New Book edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen: Law and Social Policy in the Global South: Brazil, China, India, South Africa (Routledge)

 Law and Social Policy in the Global South:
Brazil, China, India, South Africa
Edited by Ulrike Davy & Albert Chen

Routledge

Published in December 2022

280 pp.

Description: The book is an in-depth study of the origins and the trajectories of the law governing social policies in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, four middle-income countries in the global South with a history in social policy making that starts in the 1920s.

     The policies of these countries affect almost half of the world’s population. The book takes the legal framework of the policies as a starting point, but the main interest lies behind the letter of the law: What were the objectives and goals of social policy over the course of the last 100 years? What were the ideas, ideologies, and values pursued by relevant actors? The book comprises four country studies and a comparative study. The country studies concentrate on the political and social context of social policy making in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa as well as on the ideas, ideologies, and values underpinning the constitution, statutory laws, and case law that frame and shape social policy at the national level. The country studies are complemented by a comparative study exploring and describing the commonalities and differences in the ideational approaches to social policies across the four countries, nationally and – in the formative decades – internationally. The comparative study also identifies the characteristics that make Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, and South African social policies distinct from European social policies. With its emphasis on law and drawing on legal scholarship, the book adds a new dimension to the existing accounts on welfare state building, which, so far, are dominated by European narratives and by scholars with a background in sociology, political science, and development studies.

     This book is relevant to specialists and peers and will be invaluable to those individuals interested in the fields of comparative and international social security law, human rights law, comparative constitutional law, constitutional history, law and development studies, comparative social policies, global social policies, social work, and welfare state theory.

Face To Face With The Law Society Roll Of Honour Inductee 2022, Albert H.Y. Chen GBS, SBS, JP (HK Lawyer)

"Face To Face With The Law Society Roll Of Honour Inductees 2022, Albert H.Y. Chen GBS, SBS, JP and Huen Wong SBS, BBS, JP"

in Hong Kong Lawyer, November 2022 issue

The Roll of Honour was established to give credit to legal professionals, who have, in the opinion of The Law Society’s Council, given such distinguished service to The Law Society or its Council, the development of the legal profession in Hong Kong or the practice of law, that their contribution warrants such recognition by The Law Society.

This year, two notable members of the legal community were admitted to the Roll of Honour – Huen Wong and Albert H.Y. Chen. In this cover feature, we get a closer look at their professional journey, experiences, inspirations, and future goals.

1. What does making it to the Roll of Honour of The Law Society of Hong Kong mean to you? Why is it significant for you?

AC: I was admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong in 1984 after I completed my articled clerkship at the firm Johnson Stokes & Master (JSM). Most of my classmates in the law school of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have become solicitors. And some of my best friends are solicitors. It is therefore the greatest honour for me to be admitted to The Law Society’s Roll of Honour, and to be in the company of some of the most distinguished solicitors in Hong Kong’s legal history.

2. Which areas or contributions of your work are you most proud of? Why?

AC: I have worked as a legal academic at HKU since 1984. I have tried my best to be a teacher of Hong Kong’s public law, to be a scholar of the legal systems and legal developments in Hong Kong and Mainland China, and to contribute to the management of the law school and the development of legal education in Hong Kong.

... Click here and view pp. 13-23 to read the full text.