Miguel Manero de Lemos and Simon NM Young on Regional Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau (new book chapter)

"Regional Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau"
Miguel Manero de Lemos and Simon NM Young
in Elgar Encyclopedia of Crime and Criminal Justice
Edward Elgar Publishing
Published online in Dec 2022 

I. Introduction

This entry outlines the law and practice of regional judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the larger People’s Republic of China (PRC). The current account is one of cooperation between three territorial parts of the PRC, namely Mainland China (Mainland) and the two special administrative regions of the PRC, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR or Hong Kong) and the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR or Macau). But prior to 1997 and 1999, the years in which the PRC respectively resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau, the account was one of cooperation between three sovereigns, namely the PRC, the United Kingdom ( England & Wales) and Portugal. Ironically, in the more than two decades after the resumption of Chinese sovereignty, there has been less formal cooperation between the three territories within one country than there was when cooperation was between three sovereign states. This is because the ‘one country, two systems’ model, which underpins the constitutional relationship between the Central People’s Government (CPG) and the Governments of Hong Kong and Macau, has been unable to bridge the differences in the laws and values of the criminal justice system in each of the three jurisdictions. The tensions that have arisen are described in this entry...