Stefan Lo on Nature of Corporate Veil-Piercing and Revitalization of the Evasion Principle (Law Quarterly Review)

"Nature of Corporate Veil-Piercing and Revitalization of the Evasion Principle"
Stefan H C Lo
Law Quarterly Review, Volume 139, Issue Jul

Published: July 2023

Abstract: The doctrine of veil-piercing remains one of the enigmas of company law. The imagery of piercing of the corporate veil vividly symbolises the fact that veil-piercing strikes at the core of the concept of a company as a legal entity separate from its members. As such, the doctrine continues to be controversial. The Supreme Court in Prest v Petrodel Resources Ltd confirmed the existence of the doctrine under the common law and Lord Sumption in that case attempted to provide clarity on the scope of the doctrine. In some respects, his Lordship's views have assisted in clarifying the principles but, in other respects, his judgment has added to confusion. Many have also interpreted 'Prest' as narrowing the scope of veil-piercing, rendering the doctrine almost meaningless in practice. The Supreme Court's observations in the recent decision of Hurstwood Properties (A) Ltd v Rossendale BC lend support to such scepticism on the import of the doctrine.

Gary Meggitt on A British Bundesrat? The Brown Commission and the Future of the House of Lords (Amicus Curiae)

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"A British Bundesrat? The Brown Commission and the Future of the House of Lords"

Gary Meggitt
Amicus Curiae, Series 2, Vol 4, No 3

Published online: 24 June 2023

Abstract: Reform of the House of Lords has occupied the minds of politicians, civil servants and academics for over a century. In late 2022, the Labour Party published a proposal for the replacement of the Lords with a new, democratically elected, Assembly of the Nations and Regions. This proposed Assembly resembles, at least superficially, the German Bundesrat. The author reviews the history of Lords reform, examines Labour’s proposals, compares the envisioned Assembly with the Bundesrat and concludes that the former will be found wanting.

Michael Ng on Empires Collaborate: Geopolitics of Colonial Policing in Hong Kong (1880s–1970s) (CUP book chapter)

"Empires Collaborate: Geopolitics of Colonial Policing in Hong Kong (1880s–1970s)"
Michael Ng
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 291-315

Summary: To date, most scholarly work on historical Hong Kong policing has focused on the relationship between the governing and governed within a local setting. This approach explains policing solely within the confines of the juxtaposition of the authoritarian power of the colonial government on the one hand with the individual rights and liberties of the colonized on the other. This chapter, which draws upon archival documents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries showing how public media in Hong Kong were systematically censored, placed under police surveillance, and prosecuted for political reasons, argues that collaboration among the imperial empires to safeguard their interests in East Asia contributed significantly to Hong Kong policing during that period. Hence, this chapter argues that Hong Kong policing was historically not solely a matter of domestic authoritarian governance but also an issue of global geopolitical relevance. Analyzing colonial Hong Kong policing based on the conventional framework of human rights or colonial inequality and racism without considering the bigger picture of global and regional politics is, this chapter argues, seriously inadequate. The bigger picture is the political-economic situation of China, China’s relations with the major world powers, and those powers’ China strategies over time, as this chapter’s archival discovery will discuss.

Hualing Fu on High Policing and Human Rights Lawyering in China (CUP book chapter)

"High Policing and Human Rights Lawyering in China"
Hualing Fu
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 53-86

Summary: This chapter studies the interaction between human rights lawyers and activists and political policing in China. While coercion is key to authoritarian governance, coercive and repressive measures in and of themselves do not produce regime resilience and deliver orders, compliance, and effective governance that is commonly observed in China. This chapter examines the systemic use of “soft repression,” which is preventive and preemptive in nature, characterized by surveillance, early intervention, and political persuasion. The process is informal and interactive in which the Chinese political policing systems bring government pressure and other non-state forces to bear on target groups and individuals to achieve compliance. Subtle intimidation, consent under duress, relational repression, and voluntary detention, all hallmarks of China’s political policing, which is referred to as coercive political persuasion, have worked to constrain legitimate advocacy without frequently resorting to direct violence or blatant violation of legal rules.

Jedidiah Kroncke on Discipline or Democracy: The Endogeneity of Police Accountability (CUP book chapter)

"Discipline or Democracy: The Endogeneity of Police Accountability"
Jedidiah Kroncke
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 26-50

Summary: Traditionally there has been a reflexive assumption that democratic regimes have more accountable and less violent policing practices than those in authoritarian regimes. Yet modern authoritarian regimes have pursued policies of police professionalization while democratic regimes continue to often suffer from comparatively higher levels of police violence. This chapter argues that an examination of policing in Japan, the Philippines, and China supports the growing irrelevance of regime-type for understanding police violence and accountability. While modern policing has been subject to increased empirical study, a technocratic emphasis on policing practices has been unable to overcome both the core sociogenic drivers of crime and the intransigent moralism through which publics evaluate police action. Consequently, historical and cultural factors are the primary drivers of how any given society perceives the legitimate objects of police violence, and thus police violence strongly resists reduction through technical revisions or the reform of formal police institutions.

Hualing Fu and Weitseng Chen on Mapping the Authoritarian and Democratic Divide: The Transformation of Policing in Asia (CUP book chapter)

"Mapping the Authoritarian and Democratic Divide The Transformation of Policing in Asia"
Hualing Fu and Weitseng Chen
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 3-25

Summary: This edited volume explores the nature of authoritarian policing, its transformation and resilience, and its rule of law implications. The discussion of the evolution of policing takes place in the context of the overall development of the police, their professionalization, institutional autonomy and neutrality, legality, and their credibility within the communities they manage and serve. What makes policing “democratic” is a contested concept and the definition varies depending on the level of abstraction and the particular focus of the inquiry. While regime type, which is itself a contested concept, the close nexus between the coercive power of the police and the state, it is never dispositive. Thus, the dichotomous categorization of authoritarian policing (AP) and democratic policing (DP), while useful as a starting point for comparative analysis, misses a large amount of nuance and often overlooks the plurality of either system, neglecting the fact that a police system can be authoritarian or democratic in multiple ways and in different aspects of policing. This volume rejects this simple binary view. It aims to untie and unpack the nexus between the police and the political system and to explore the plurality of both AP and DP.

New Book Edited by Hualing Fu and Weitseng Chen: Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia (Cambridge University Press)

"Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia"
Edited by Weitseng Chen, Hualing Fu
Cambridge University Press
Published in May 2023
400 pp.

Book Description: Policing is legitimized in different ways in authoritarian and democratic states. In East and Southeast Asia, different regime types to a greater or lesser extent determine the power of the police and their complex relationship with the rule of law. This volume examines the evolution of the police as a key political institution from a historical perspective and offers comparative insights into the potential of democratic policing and conversely the resilience of authoritarian policing in Asia. The case studies focus on eight jurisdictions: Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The theoretical chapters analyse and explain the links between policing and society, the politics of policing and recent police reforms. This volume fills a gap in the literature by exploring the nature of authoritarian policing and how it has transformed and developed the rule of law throughout East and Southeast Asia.

Reviews:

‘A comprehensive, in-depth and insightful study of policing and its political context in East and Southeast Asia, including the relationship between authoritarian and democratic policing and democratization.’

Albert Chen - Cheng Chan Lan Yue Professor and Chair of Constitutional Law, The University of Hong Kong

 

‘The case studies of diverse East Asian societies make clear that an independent legal system and police professionalism can do much to protect citizen rights and wellbeing, even with dictatorial leaders and colonial and authoritarian pasts. This volume is essential reading for those committed to democracy and decency in government. The realism and knowledge the book provides with its’ attention to paradoxes and ambivalences in a rich, nuanced, interdisciplinary tapestry significantly expands understanding. It sets a high standard for comparative international studies of policing and democracy and will become a classic.’

Gary T. Marx - Professor Emeritus, MIT

‘In exploring the complex commonalities and divergences of policing in Asia, Chen and Fu have produced the very best kind of edited volume. It brings together a range of great scholars on a novel question, and collectively moves our knowledge forward. Highly recommended!’

Tom Ginsburg - Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, Professor of Political Science, The University of Chicago

RGC Awards $4.8 Million in Research Funding to HKU Law 2023/24

Congratulations to our eight colleagues who were successful in the 2023-2024 round of research grant funding by Hong Kong's Research Grants Council (RGC). Six General Research Fund (GRF) projects were funded to study the abuse of dominance in the digital age; to examine the reformation of administrative law for the coming age of algorithmic government in Hong Kong; to evaluate the process of transnational law-making and its boundaries in trust and succession planning in Hong Kong and Singapore; to conduct field experiments of using cameras in Chinese trials; to study the implications for enhanced intellectual property protection in China through the Chinese music streaming market; to explore possible changes and impacts on the Hong Kong tax system after the social unrest, COVID-19 and PRC factor. Two Early Career Scheme (ECS) project were funded to study political crowdfunding in authoritarian regimes and to conduct a comparative study (Hong Kong, Australia, and England) of trustees’ discretionary powers in express private trusts and their possible control. The details of the new funded projects are as follows:

GRF:

Professor Thomas Cheng

Abuse of Dominance in the Digital Age, HK$664,340

Professor Eric C. Ip

Judging the Automated State: The Reformation of Administrative Law for the Coming Age of Algorithmic Government in Hong Kong under Chinese Sovereignty, HK$457,140

Ms. Rebecca Lee

Trust and succession planning in Hong Kong and Singapore: a critical evaluation of the process of transnational law-making and its boundaries, HK$405,800

Dr John Zhuang Liu

Cameras in the Courtroom: Field Experiments in Real Trials, HK$848,000

Professor Haochen Sun

The Rise of the Chinese Music Streaming Market: Implications for Enhanced Intellectual Property Protection in China, HK$608,400

Mr. Wilson Chow

Hong Kong tax system: New Era! New Wine in New Bottle?, HK$850,000

ECS:
Dr Julius Yam
Political Crowdfunding in Authoritarian Regimes, HK$570,000

Dr Hui Jing

Controlling Trustees’ Discretionary Powers in Express Private Trusts: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong, Australia, and England, HK$473,000