Welcome the new Global Academic Fellow Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara!

Welcome to Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara who joined the HKU Faculty of Law as a Global Academic Fellow!

Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara is a Salvadoran-Spanish scholar of international law and institutions. Valeria’s research engages with ‘law and humanities’ scholarship in addressing questions of international law, its institutions, and geopolitical implications, especially between North-South and South-South states and actors. The research builds on Valeria’s personal and professional experiences in international development and peacebuilding projects in El Salvador, Spain, the Basque Country, and South Africa.
     As a Global Fellow, Valeria’s post-doctoral research, provisionally titled “North-South Encounters: International Law and the Geopolitics of Contestation”, examines how global South states and actors have pushed for different ways of understanding, and imagining, international law. Here Valeria is particularly interested in how the global South develops creative (and unexpected) diplomatic practices to engage with, and pushback against, international law and institutions.
     Prior to joining HKU, Valeria undertook doctoral studies at Melbourne Law School, under the supervision of Professors Sundhya Pahuja and Shaun McVeigh. Valeria’s doctoral thesis examined the relationship between Truth Commissions and international law. The thesis focused on the ways in which this relationship produces an official account of past violence and promises of future community, which fundamentally conditions how communities live together in the aftermath of violent conflict. Methodologically, the thesis analyzed the representation and contestation of authority deployed by three cultural objects associated with three Truth Commissions: a literary prologue (Argentina 1983-1984), a museum of memory (Chile, 1990-1991), and a tapestry (El Salvador, 1992-1993). This research has been published in Leiden Journal of International Law, London Review of International Law, the Routledge Handbook of International Law and the Humanities, and will form the basis of a monograph titled Truth Commissions: The Authority of International Law and the State after Conflict.
     Valeria is also collaborating on two research projects. One is with Dr Claerwen O’Hara (La Trobe Law School) examining the legal-political initiatives of the multilateral organization, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (‘ALBA’ for its acronym in Spanish). This collaboration also includes a workshop on ‘International Law in the early 2000s’. The other project is with Dr Eliana Cusato (University of Amsterdam’s Centre for International Law). The first part of the collaboration involved a seminar series in 2021, examining the relationship between international law, transitional justice and power. The online series brought together nine speakers from universities in Australia, India, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. This collaboration will continue in 2023-2024 with a series of lectures and research workshop on international law and the political economy of reparations.
     Valeria serves as managing editor of the Australian Feminist Law Journal, as co-chair of the History and Theory of International Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL), and as a member of the executive committee of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia.
     Valeria holds a PhD from Melbourne Law School (Australia), an MA in Peace Studies from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame (US), an MA in Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Basque Country/Spain), and an LLB from the University of Granada (Spain).

Research Areas:

• Public International Law
• International Law and Politics
• Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Institutions
• International Law and Development
• Law and Humanities

Congratulations to Professor Eric Ip!

Congratulations to Professor Eric Ip on his promotion to full professorship!

Professor Ip is an outstanding scholar who excels in research, teaching, and service. He has published extensively in high impact journals and with top publishers in various areas, including public law theories, Hong Kong and Chinese constitutions, and more recently, public health and legal and medical issues. Professor Ip is a valuable member of the faculty, and this promotion is well-deserved recognition of his contributions.

Wilson Lui on The Need for Finality and Certainty in International Commercial Dispute Resolution (new book chapter)

"The Need for Finality and Certainty in International Commercial Dispute Resolution"
Wilson Lui (Pre-Doctoral Fellow)
in Sundaresh Menon and Anselmo Reyes (eds), Transnational Commercial Disputes in an Age of Anti-Globalism and Pandemic (Hart Publishing: 2023),
Chapter 7, pp 183–208
Abstract: This chapter considers the notions of finality and certainty in international commercial dispute resolution, including their interactions with party autonomy, comity, and sovereignty. It looks at the different approaches to manage concurrent proceedings and to recognise and enforce judgments and awards, as well as the considerations of due process and public policy. It discusses how the Hague Conference on Private International Law, in particular the 2005 and 2019 HCCH Conventions, may promote finality and certainty by attempting to harmonise these different approaches. Lastly, it examines some of the effects and developments that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the landscape of international commercial dispute resolution.

Eric Ip on Harnessing Legal Structures of Virtue for Planetary Health (Journal of Medical Ethics)

"Harnessing legal structures of virtue for planetary health"
Eric Ip
Journal of Medical Ethics
Published online in March 2023
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme-2022-108759

Abstract: Humans and other species depend on the planet’s well-being to survive and flourish. The health of the planet and its ecosystems is under threat from anthropogenic climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. The promotion of planetary health against entrenched degradation of nature urgently requires ethical guidance. Using an ecocentric virtue jurisprudence approach, this article argues that the highest end of safeguarding planetary health is to secure the flourishing of the Earth community, of which the flourishing of humanity is but one component. The article demonstrates how law, despite its historic role in facilitating our present planetary crisis, has an untapped potential to redeem itself by promoting planetary flourishing through the creation of conditions conducive to the practice of moral virtues, which can help meet the challenges of the Anthropocene. Once given an ecocentric interpretation, the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, courage and moderation, as well as their subvirtues, can justify or produce legal structures that address everything from the human right to a healthy environment to the rights of nature.

New Book by Daniel A. Bell (HKU LAW Chair Professor): The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University (Princeton University Press)

 "The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University"
Daniel A. Bell 
Princeton University Press
Published in March 2023
216 pp.

An inside view of Chinese academia and what it reveals about China’s political system

Synopsis:
      On January 1, 2017, Daniel Bell was appointed Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University―the first foreign dean of a political science faculty in mainland China’s history. In The Dean of Shandong, Bell chronicles his experiences as what he calls “a minor bureaucrat,” offering an inside account of the workings of Chinese academia and what they reveal about China’s political system. It wasn’t all smooth sailing―Bell wryly recounts sporadic bungles and misunderstandings―but Bell’s post as dean provides a unique vantage point on China today.

Bell, neither a Chinese citizen nor a member of the Chinese Communist Party, was appointed as Dean because of his scholarly work on Confucianism―but soon found himself coping with a variety of issues having little to do with scholarship or Confucius. These include the importance of hair color and the prevalence of hair-dying among university administrators, both male and female; Shandong’s drinking culture, with endless toasts at every shared meal; and some unintended consequences of an intensely competitive academic meritocracy. As Dean, he also confronts weightier matters: the role at the university of the Party secretary, the national anti-corruption campaign and its effect on academia (Bell asks provocatively, “What’s wrong with corruption?”), and formal and informal modes of censorship. Considering both the revival of Confucianism in China over the last three decades and what he calls “the Communist comeback” since 2008, Bell predicts that China’s political future is likely to be determined by both Confucianism and Communism.

About the Author:

      Daniel A. Bell is Chair Professor with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He served as Dean at Shandong University's School of Political Science and Public Administration from 2017 to 2022. He is the author of The China Model, Just Hierarchy (with Wang Pei), Beyond Liberal Democracy, China's New Confucianism(all Princeton), and other books.

Praise: 

“In The Dean of Shandong, Daniel Bell takes us where few Westerners have gone—into the faculty lounge, teaching rooms, and party meetings of a Chinese university in the era of Xi Jinping. Think Lucky Jim meets Brave New World: Bell’s account of life as a senior Western academic in a Chinese university is by turns humane, disturbing, hilarious—and always eye-opening.”—Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945

“Daniel Bell is wry, informed, open-minded, and enlightening in his look at Chinese bureaucracy from his years on the inside. Everyone interested in China will find new insights in this terse, funny book.”—James Fallows, author of China Airborne

“A leading interpreter of the Confucian tradition, Daniel Bell takes us into the citadel of contemporary Chinese higher education. Honest and wise, entertaining and witty, he tells the story of an illustrious scholarly life that began in French Canada and Oxford and led to the deanship at Shandong University, one of the most prestigious in China. The personal narrative sparkles, but Bell also analyzes with great clarity and insight the many challenges as well as promises facing China and Chinese intellectuals in the unfolding twenty-first century.”—Anna Sun, author of Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities

“If you think a book about a ‘minor educational bureaucrat’ in provincial China must be dull, think again. This is a sparkling, compulsively readable book about how an Oxford-educated Canadian political scientist became the leading theorist of political Confucianism in China. Bell’s story is charming and filled with self-deprecating humor, but it is also remarkably courageous, given the current climate. It will leave you with a sense that you understand the Chinese and the Chinese system much better than you did before.”—James Hankins, author of Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy

“Bell offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of a Chinese university as both an insider (a dean) and an outsider (a Canadian). Along the way he treats, with a light hand, the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of contemporary China. This is a book anyone interested in that country will enjoy.”—Shadi Bartsch, author of Plato Goes to China: The Greek Classics and Chinese Nationalism

“Daniel Bell has rightly earned a reputation as the dean—both literally and figuratively—of Confucian studies. But even more important is his cosmopolitan and communitarian spirit, a compelling worldview that makes him a true bridge between East and West. The wisdom of this book—as with all of Bell’s writing—is both novel and universal.”—Parag Khanna, author of The Future is Asian

HKU Jessup Team crowned 2023 Hong Kong Overall Champion

           (Left to right): Mr Fergus Tam (coach), Abdullah Bin Azhar, Ambrose Yu, Tiffany Ng, Faith Lee, Alex Chan, Mr Thomas Lam (coach) 

The HKU Jessup Team was declared the Hong Kong Overall Champion of the 2023 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition on 11 and 12 March 2023. Jessup is known as one of the most prestigious international mooting competitions in the world. This year’s Jessup problem concerns the interpretation of a peace treaty, the law of occupation and self-defence, unilateral economic sanctions, and international environmental law on the disposal of hazardous waste.

     The Team consists of Abdullah Bin Azhar (PCLL), Chan Chun Hin Alex (PCLL), Yu Sheung Him Ambrose (BBA&LLB 5), Ng Yuen Tung Tiffany (LLB 4), and Lee Zee Faith (LLB 3). To prepare for the competition, the Team drafted two 11,600-word memorials and received rigorous advocacy training. After competing against other law schools in Hong Kong, HKU and the City University of Hong Kong advanced to the Grand Final, emerging as the highest and second-highest ranking teams in the preliminary rounds respectively. Oral submissions were heard before Mr Johnny Mok SC, BBS, JP from Des Voeux Chambers, Mr Jin Pao SC from Temple Chambers, and Ms Jessica Zhou from White & Case. In addition to the Champion title, the Team received the Best Respondent Memorial Award, as well as all Best Oralist awards, with Abdullah Bin Azhar, Alex Chan and Ambrose Yu receiving the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places of Best Oralist awards respectively.

      The Team would like to express their sincerest gratitude to the coaches, Mr Fergus Tam and Mr Thomas Lam, for their valuable feedback and guidance. The Team would also like to thank the guest judges, Mr Ernest Ng, Ms Astina Au, Ms Natalie So, Mr Ryan Cheung, Mr Jason Louie and Mr Raphael Leung, for their kind assistance and helpful advice. The Team will participate in the international rounds in Washington DC in April 2023, in which they will represent Hong Kong in competing against fellow advocates from around 100 countries and jurisdictions.

New Book by Anya Adair & Andrew Rabin: Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England (Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press)

Law, Literature, and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England
Anya Adair & Andrew Rabin
Series: Anglo-Saxon Studies
Boydell & Brewer, Boydell Press

Copyright Date: 2023

288 pp.
https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2x4kpjc
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2x4kpjc

Book Description: Valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society. Pre-Conquest English law was among the most sophisticated in early medieval Europe. Composed largely in the vernacular, it played a crucial role in the evolution of early English identity and exercised a formative influence on the development of the Common Law. However, recent scholarship has also revealed the significant influence of these legal documents and ideas on other cultural domains, both modern and pre-modern. This collection explores the richness of pre-Conquest legal writing by looking beyond its traditional codified form. Drawing on methodologies ranging from traditional philology to legal and literary theory, and from a diverse selection of contributors offering a broad spectrum of disciplines, specialities and perspectives, the essays examine the intersection between traditional juridical texts - from law codes and charters to treatises and religious regulation - and a wide range of literary genres, including hagiography and heroic poetry. In doing so, they demonstrate that the boundary that has traditionally separated "law" from other modes of thought and writing is far more porous than hitherto realized. Overall, the volume yields valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society.

New Book by Angus Young & Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss: A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)

"A Concise Guide to Corporate Compliance Management (2nd Edition)"
Dr Angus Young & Dr Kai-Uwe Seidenfuss
Wolters Kluwer (HK) (formerly CCH)
Published in March 2023
228 pp.

Book Description: Compliance is more than operating within the boundaries of the law and regulations. It epitomizes the norms and the integrity of an organization, and it contributes to good business results. Rather than just knowing and following the respective requirements, compliance management covers a wide range of areas.

      Moreover, effective compliance does require professionals who understand regulatory obligations, who listen to the business, including but not limited to skilful educators, counsellors, governance professionals, accountants, and facilitators.

     While the first edition outlined the key concepts of compliance and looked at the area from serval perspectives, this second edition also covers new topics including: New ISO standards on compliance management systems; Practitioners’ perspectives and selective discussions on regulators in financial services sector; and Discussions on the Three Line Model as well as leadership and impacts of the use of technology in compliance.

       The updated edition is meant to be practical and structured to support the reader, with insights for those already in the profession and for those thinking of entering the field. 

New Book Edited by Shahla Ali: Comparative and Transnational Dispute Resolution (Routledge)

Comparative and Transnational Dispute Resolution
Edited by Shahla Ali
Routledge 
Published in February 2023
270 pp.

Book Description: This edited volume presents research and policy insights into the theory and practice of dispute systems reform in diverse jurisdictions. It highlights how important extra-judicial mechanisms are for resolving cross-border disputes, as evidenced both by the breadth of scholarship dedicated to the issue and the proliferation of parties resorting to non-litigious dispute resolution mechanisms in recent years.

     Drawing on selected case studies, the book examines the impact of comparative research and policy analysis in advancing reform of dispute resolution institutions at both the regional and global levels. It explores the challenges and opportunities of understanding and assessing developments in systems of dispute resolution in diverse social and political contexts through comparative research.

     With a growing number of disputes which have come to involve cross-border issues, anyone interested in transnational and comparative dispute resolution will find this book a useful reference.

Reviews: 

‘An extraordinary collection of comparative perspectives is presented in this engaging book. It is arguably more important than at any time in the past, given increasing globalisation, to consider what current themes and approaches exist across jurisdictions that can enable us all to deal with disputes effectively. It is a delight to read and engage with the perspectives of these outstanding thinkers.’

Prof. Tania Sourdin, Dean and Head of School, Newcastle Law School

‘Anyone engaged in the serious study of legal dispute resolution should not only read this book, but also keep it at hand. Dispute resolution students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers—especially but not only those working across borders—will find striking insights and actionable wisdom about how to research, design, and reform effective dispute resolution systems.’

Dr. Joshua Karton, Associate Professor, Queen’s University Faculty of Law

"This pathbreaking book brings new perspectives to the study of comparative and transnational alternative dispute resolution. It promises to change the way with we understand the laws, systems, and institutions undergirding the global practice of mediation, arbitration, and other extra-judicial methods."

Dr. Zach Calo, Professor of Law, Hamad bin Khalifa University College of Law and Public Policy

Summary of the book based on this link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4344527

Ryan Whalen on ChatGPT (RTHK Radio 3 Backchat)

Ryan Whalen, an expert on AI from the perspective of law and policy from HKU Law, joined the panel discussing the use ChatGPT at the university level on RTHK Radio 3's Backchat programme on 30 March 2023.  HKU has adopted an initial policy barring students from using ChatGPT in submitted work without a teacher's consent. In the panel discussion, Dr Whalen shared his views on whether there shoudl be regulation of this new technology.  To listen to the discussion, click here. 

Ryan Whalen on Continuing Hong Kong’s Health ‘Emergency’ Risks Public Trust (SCMP: Letter)

Letters | "Continuing Hong Kong’s health ‘emergency’ risks public trust"
Whalen Ryan
SCMP
8 February 2023

Introduction: The government is to be commended for reopening Hong Kong, rolling back most pandemic-related restrictions, and welcoming the world to come and visit again. However, there is one major legal omission in our return to normalcy. Hong Kong legally remains in a state of public health emergency. This state of emergency provides the government with a variety of powers under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap 599).

     Despite our current legal state of emergency, it is clear to most observers that the emergency has passed. This is true whether one takes a layperson’s definition, or that provided in Cap 599.
Click here to read the full text ...

New Book by Sida Liu et al: The Asian Law and Society Reader (Cambridge University Press)

The Asian Law and Society Reader
Lynette J. Chua, David M. Engel, and Sida Liu
Cambridge University Press
Published in March 2023
400 pp.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108864824

Book Description: The first reader on Asian law and society scholarship, this book features reading selections from a wide range of Asian countries – East, South, Southeast and Central Asia – along with original commentaries by the three editors on the theoretical debates and research methods pertinent to the discipline. Organized by themes and topical areas, the reader enables scholars and students to break out of country-specific silos to make theoretical connections across national borders. It meets a growing demand for law and society materials in institutions and universities in Asia and around the world. It is written at a level accessible to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students as well as experienced researchers, and serves as a valuable teaching tool for courses focused on Asian law and society in law schools, area studies, history, religion, and social science fields such as sociology, anthropology, politics, government, and criminal justice.

Reviews: 

‘This is just the volume that sociolegal scholars have been waiting for! The Asian Law and Society Reader is an elegantly organized, comprehensive, and accessible text, analyzing contemporary substantive topics within enduring legacies of colonialism and rapid legal and social transformation. The text illuminates the significance of this innovative and rich body of research for all law and society scholars today - wherever one works in the world.’

Eve Darian-Smith - Professor and Chair of Global and International Studies, University of California, Irvine, and coeditor of the Routledge Handbook of Law and Society (2021)

‘This book is a treasure trove of law and society research, spanning a massive diversity of societies and an equally broad array of issues. There is no scholar of the region who will fail to learn from it, and it will be of great use for teaching and research.’

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

‘This intelligently curated collection brings together a new generation of Asian law and society research. It is exactly the right starting point for getting up to speed on the diversity of the field, or for anyone who wants to learn more about Asian politics and society through the lens of law.’

Rachel Stern - Professor of Law and Political Science and Pamela P. Fong and Family Distinguished Chair in China Studies, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

‘In the twenty-first century, Asia will surely become another center for law and society scholarship. The inherent diversity of Asia will be further developed and conducive to future-oriented institutional experiments and knowledge innovation. From this point of view, the publication of The Asian Law and Society Reader is of great significance. I believe that it is the best introductory guide for Asian law and society research at this stage, and is also an indispensable reference for carrying out law and society education in Asian countries.’

Weidong Ji - University Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and President, China Institute for Socio-Legal Studies

‘This book examines the meaning and action of law in diverse Asian societies through a detailed examination of a wide range of issues. Readers will gain in-depth knowledge of various topics and will be able to read the universal significance of law and society studies in Asia.’

Yoshitaka Wada - Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Waseda University, Tokyo

‘Grounded in rich empirical research, this volume extends the epistemological and methodological imagination of law and society. Intellectual conversations between empirical essays and insightful commentary reveal intellectual journeys of scholars and the field itself, achieving both a bird’s-eye view of the field and insights into the lives of ordinary people as they negotiate socio-legal realities on the ground.’

Yukiko Koga - Associate Professor of Anthropology, Yale University

Kelvin Kwok, Eric Ip and Shing Fung Lee on The Conundrums of the Reasonable Patient Standard in English Medical Law (BMC Medical Ethics)

"The conundrums of the reasonable patient standard in English medical law"
Kelvin Hiu Fai Kwok, Eric C. Ip & Shing Fung Lee
BMC Medical Ethics
Published on 23 February 2023
Abstract:

Background

In its 2015 decision in Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Board, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom overruled the long-standing, paternalistic prudent doctor standard of care in favour of a new reasonable patient standard which obligates doctors to make their patients aware of all material risks of the recommended treatment and of any reasonable alternative treatment. This landmark judgment has been of interest to the rest of the common law world. A judicial trend of invoking Montgomery to impose more stringent requirements on doctors is discernible in subsequent decisions since then.

Main body

In this narrative review, without questioning the idea that properly informed patients should play a more active role in procedures affecting their own health in furtherance of their autonomy, safety, and consumer rights, we identify and analyse, with the aid of realistic clinical thought experiments, three practical conundrums that the Montgomery standard may inflict on the daily work of doctors, unfairly exposing them to arbitrary legal risks.

Conclusions

These conundrums pertain to the ascertainment of the risks that must be disclosed to the patient under the test of ‘materiality’; the legal uncertainty as to the scope of the exceptions; and the actual ability of doctors to cope with the pressures of time. These conundrums offer ripe opportunities to rethink the proper role of judicially developed medical law in modern health care practice.

Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat on Reconfiguring the Linkage Between Corruption and Economic Development in China: Legitimate Concerns Not Alleviated (Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal)

"Reconfiguring the Linkage Between Corruption and Economic Development in China: Legitimate Concerns Not Alleviated"

Miron Mushkat & Roda Mushkat
Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, Issue 32, pp. 75-111
Published in 2022

Abstract: Grappling with the intricacies of corrupt practices in the postpositivist age has become an increasingly challenging proposition. Multiple perspectives, normative as well as positivist, have been brought to bear on this phenomenon that was once thought to be straightforward. Socio-legal scholars inspired by the law-and economics paradigm have largely adhered to the positivist blueprint but have been divided between those who regard corruption as unequivocally inimical to the health of the economy (“sanders”) and those who view it as a force selectively fueling economic dynamism (“greasers”). The reform-era Chinese hybrid economy has emerged as the laboratory where these conflicting ideas vie for scientific superiority. Some pathbreaking research has been undertaken, mostly leaning toward the “optimistic” side. This Article shows that it has fallen short of significantly enhancing that functionally sanguine position and that the weight of evidence continues to support the stance espoused by “negatively” inclined scholars.

Call for Papers: the Conference on ‘Hong Kong Bilingual Legal System: Retrospect and Prospect’ (abstract submission: on or before Apr 30)

Conference on ‘Hong Kong Bilingual Legal System:

Retrospect and Prospect’ – Call for Papers

「香港雙語法制：回顧與前瞻」研討會徵稿通知

The Conference on ‘Hong Kong Bilingual Legal System: Retrospect and Prospect’ will be held on 26 and 27 August 2023 at the University of Hong Kong. Organised by the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, the conference is the first major international academic conference to focus on legal language of Hong Kong. The Conference aims to provide a platform for experts and legal practitioners from home and abroad to present their research and practical views, as well as to provide networking opportunities. In addition to the presentation sessions, workshops will be held on a variety of topics, covering both theoretical and practical aspects. As the Official Languages Ordinance is approaching its 50th anniversary, this Conference will review the challenges and opportunities of legal language of Hong Kong, and provide new ideas and directions to guide the further development of Hong Kong’s bilingual legal system.

「香港雙語法制：回顧與前瞻」研討會將於2023年8月26日及27日在香港大學舉行。本研討會由香港大學法律學院主辦，是首場以香港法律語言為主題的大型國際學術研討會。本研討會旨在為國內外專家學者及法律從業員提供平台，發表研究成果及實務意見，以及提供交流、聯繫的機會。本研討會除設有專題報告環節外，亦會舉行不同主題的工作坊，兼顧理論與實務層面。適逢《法定語文條例》實施接近50年，本研討會將回顧香港法律語言的挑戰及機遇，並提供新思維、新方向，引領香港雙語法制進一步發展。

Experts, scholars, practitioners, and students in the field of legal language research are invited to submit papers on any topic related to Hong Kong’s bilingual legal system and the legal language of Hong Kong. Each paper will have a tentative presentation time of 15 minutes and a discussion time of 10 minutes. Papers are particularly welcomed on the following topics:

現誠邀國內外從事法律語言研究的專家學者、法律從業員、學生等提交任何與香港雙語法制或香港法律語言有關的論文。每篇論文報告時間暫定為15分鐘，討論時間為10分鐘。本研討會特別歡迎圍繞下列主題的論文：

1. The development of the common law in Chinese

以中文發展的普通法

2. Developments and challenges in the use of Chinese in court proceedings

於法庭程序使用中文的發展和挑戰

3. Developments and challenges in bilingual law drafting

雙語法律草擬的發展和挑戰

4. The impact of information technology on the use of Chinese in law

資訊科技對法用中文的影響

5. The development of bilingual legal education

雙語法律教育的發展

6. Development of legal Chinese in the Greater China Region

大中華地區的法用中文發展

1. This Conference is conducted in both Chinese and English, and abstracts are welcomed in either Chinese or English.

本研討會以中文、英文雙語進行，歡迎以中文或英文提交論文提要。

2. Abstracts should be anonymous and should not exceed 400 words.

論文提要應為匿名，字數不超過400字。

3. Please send your abstract in Microsoft Word (*.docx / *.doc) or as a text file (*.rtf / *.txt) to lawlanghk@gmail.com on or before 30 April 2023 (Sunday).

請於2023年4月30日（星期日）前把論文提要以Microsoft Word 電子檔 (*.docx / *.doc) 或文字檔案 (*.rtf / *.txt) 發送至 lawlanghk@gmail.com.

4. In the email text, please include the (1) real name, (2) affiliation and position, (3) correspondence address, and (4) email address of the author(s).

請於電郵內文註明作者的 (1) 真實姓名；(2) 所屬機構名稱、職稱；(3) 通訊地址及 (4) 電子郵件信箱。

5. Each person may submit a maximum of two individual papers and two co-authored papers.

每人最多只能提交兩篇單獨撰寫的論文，以及兩篇合寫的論文。

6. Abstracts will be anonymously reviewed and approved before they can be presented at the Conference. Review results will be available on 31 May 2023 (Wednesday).

論文提要將經匿名評審，通過評審後始能在研討會上報告。評審結果將於2023年5月31日（星期三）公布。

7. Some of the presented papers may be published in a book, tentatively scheduled for 2024. The final decision of acceptance will be made by the Organising Committee of the Conference based on the academic standard and practical reference value of the paper.

部分發表的論文可能編集成書，並暫定於2024年出版。錄取論文與否，以其學術水平及實務參考價值為衡量標準，最後結果由研討會籌備委員會決定。

8. Conference participation is free (including a conference dinner on 26 August 2023 for invited guests and paper presenters). Conference participants are responsible for their own travel expenses to and from their place of origin to Hong Kong, meals, accommodation, sightseeing and transportation costs in Hong Kong during the Conference. Paper presenters coming from outside Hong Kong will receive a modest subvention towards their costs.

參加會議是免費的（包括2023年8月26日為受邀嘉賓及論文發表者舉行的會議晚宴）。與會者須自行負責來回原居地與香港的交通費，以及研討會期間在香港的住宿、膳食、觀光和交通費用。來自香港以外的論文發表者將獲得適量的費用補貼。

For enquiries, please contact Mr Wilson Lui (Pre-Doctoral Fellow and part-time Lecturer, HKU Faculty of Law) or Mr Edmund Cham (Adjunct Associate Professor, HKU Faculty of Law) at lawlanghk@gmail.com. 如有查詢，請電郵至 lawlanghk@gmail.com 與呂致延先生（香港大學法律學院博士前研究員、兼任講師）或湛樹基先生（香港大學法律學院客席副教授）聯絡

New Issue of Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law (Volume 24, Issue 1, February 2023)

     ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE LAW

Editors-in-Chief: Simon NM Young and Kelley Loper

Publisher: Brill, Leiden

2023, Volume 24, Issue 1

Table of Contents

Front matter

Pages: i–iv

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

Legal Mobilisation by Women with Disabilities in Indonesia

Author: 

Yogi Paramitha Dewi

Pages: 1–21

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

The Role of External Dynamics on Vietnam’s Ratification of the Convention Against Torture

Author: 

Huan Tuong Vo

Pages: 22–42

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

Fighting Against Disinformation from Foreign Forces? Or Suppressing Criticism from Domestic Opposition Parties?

Taiwan’s Experience

Author: 

Chih-Chieh Yang

Pages: 43–74

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

Investor-State Arbitration and Indigenous Rights

Author: 

Inigo Kwan-Parsons

Pages: 75–126

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

Precluding the Wrongfulness of Derogations of International Human Rights Instruments

Authors: 

Ashika Jain

 and 

Rohit Gupta

Pages: 127–154

Online Publication Date: 15 Feb 2023

 

Congratulations to Dr Cynthia Farid on being awarded a Global Young Academy (GYA) membership

Congratulations to Dr Cynthia Farid (Global Academic Fellow) who has been admitted as a Global Young Academy (GYA) member representing Bangladesh for a five-years term!

  Under the leadership of Menattallah Elserafy (Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt) the 53-member Selection Committee of the Global Young Academy (GYA) finalised the selection of 41 new members to join the GYA in June 2023 for a tenure of five years. The GYA’s new member cohort includes representatives from 31 individual countries, covering all GYA general disciplines, and includes 16 females, 1 non-binary and 24 males. In June 2023 when the new cohort is inducted, the gender ratio will be 104 female/93 male/2 non-binary/1 no information given. Such gender balance is a development that the GYA has been moving towards for the last few years and is a reflection of the excellent female/non-binary applicants to the GYA. Among other activities, the GYA acts as a facilitator and convenor for the growing global network of National Young Academies (NYAs). The GYA is therefore delighted to see that a number of new members are also members of – or in leadership positions in – their respective country’s NYA.

      By this opportunity, Dr Cynthia Farid perceives that being part of GYA will be a great network for interdisciplinary research, which could help connect to a lot of global opportunities.  This will give her an edge in global outlook of her legal research career. Dr Farid's research interests include Constitutional Law, Legal History, Law and Society, Human Rights, Law and Development.  To view her profile on the Global Young Academy (GYA) webpage, click here. 

Benjamin Chen et al on HAVING YOUR DAY IN ROBOT COURT (Harvard Journal of Law & Technology)

 "HAVING YOUR DAY IN ROBOT COURT"
Benjamin Minhao Chen, Alexander Stremitzer & Kevin Tobia
Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 
Volume 36, Number 1, pp. 127-169
Published in Fall 2022 

Abstract: Should machines be judges? Some say “no,” arguing that citizens would see robot-led legal proceedings as procedurally unfair because the idea of “having your day in court” is thought to refer to having another human adjudicate one’s claims. Prior research established that people obey the law in part because they see it as procedurally just. The introduction of “robot judges” powered by artificial intelligence (“AI”) could undermine sentiments of justice and legal compliance if citizens intuitively view machine-adjudicated proceedings as less fair than the human-adjudicated status quo. Two original experiments show that ordinary people share this intuition: There is a perceived “human-AI fairness gap.” However, it is also possible to reduce — and perhaps even eliminate — this fairness gap through “algorithmic offsetting.” Affording litigants a hearing before an AI judge and enhancing the interpretability of AI decisions reduce the human-AI fairness gap. Moreover, the perceived procedural justice advantage of human over AI adjudication appears to be driven more by beliefs about the accuracy of the outcome and thoroughness of consideration, rather than doubts about whether a party had adequate opportunity to voice their opinions or whether the judge understood the perspective of the litigant. The results of the experiments can support a common and fundamental objection to robot judges: There is a concerning human-AI fairness gap. Yet, at the same time, the results also indicate that the public may not believe that human judges possess irreducible procedural fairness advantages. In some circumstances, people see a day in a robot court as no less fair than a day in a human court.

Benjamin Chen et al on Would Humans Trust an A.I. Judge? More Easily Than You Think (Slate)

"Would Humans Trust an A.I. Judge? More Easily Than You Think"
Benjamin Chen, Alexander Stremitzer, and Kevin Tobia
Slate

Published on 28 February 2023

Introduction: Artificial intelligence judging has become a reality. Last month, a Colombian judge used ChatGPT to generate part of his judicial opinion. Colombia is not alone. Estonia has piloted a robot judge, and the United States. and Canada increasingly use A.I. tools in law.

      These recent events have sparked a debate about “unethical” uses of A.I. in the judiciary. As the technological hurdles to A.I.-judging recede, the remaining barriers are ones of law and ethics.

        Would it be fair to citizens for an A.I. judge—an algorithmic decision-maker—to resolve disputes? 

Pui-yin Lo on Reactivated and Re-energised: The Sedition Offences in “New Era” Hong Kong (HKLJ)

Reactivated and Re-energised: The Sedition Offences in “New Era” Hong Kong
Pui-yin Lo

in Hong Kong Law Journal (Vol. 52, Part 3 of 2022), pp.913-936

Abstract: Sections 9 and 10 of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap 200), which prescribe the offences of sedition in Hong Kong, have had an extraordinary history since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Notwithstanding that it was once proposed to put them into the proverbial dustbin, the sedition offences have, since the introduction of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) in mid-2020, been vigorously enforced as an “offence endangering national security” within the meaning of the NSL by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Department of Justice. This article considers this recent history of reactivation of the sedition offences in conjunction with the system of enforcement provided under the NSL in order to explain the boosted position held of the sedition offences by the local law enforcers and their supervisors. This article then examines several completed prosecutions of sedition to date to discern how the courts of the HKSAR have viewed these offences, both in light of the attempts to impugn the offences by the defence and the comparable cases of sedition-like offences from other common law jurisdictions. Finally, this article offers three strategies for persuading the appellate courts that the sedition offences and their enforcement per the NSL could be curtailed or circumscribed: (1) sections 9 and 10 had been repealed by operation of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap 383), and accordingly there is nothing to be revived for enforcement; (2) remedial interpretation(s) can be suitably imposed to resolve the issues of legal certainty and necessity of criminalising speech and expressive acts merely and plainly for their ascribed “intentions” and (3) several of the seven categories of “seditious intention” have a reasonably doubtful connection with the safeguarding of national security and the obligation of the institutions of the HKSAR to prevent, suppress and punish acts and activities endangering national security, so that it is appropriate on balance with the protection of fundamental rights and the rule of law to disapply the NSL’s system of enforcement against persons alleged to have committed acts under those categories of “seditious intention”.