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(Left to right): Mr Thomas Lam (coach), Mr Fergus Tam (coach), Ally Chan, Veronica Yu, Chunghin Yue, Leo Pang |
HKU Legal Scholarship Blog
Follow the research activities and scholarship of the Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
Friday, March 28, 2025
HKU Jessup Team crowned 2025 Hong Kong Overall Champion
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Zealot Kenneth Tsui and Wang Tat Max Lam on Knowing receipt, characterisation, and proper law: a persistent duty and the cloak of invisibility (Trusts & Trustees)
"Knowing receipt, characterisation, and proper law: a persistent duty and the cloak of invisibility"
Zealot Kenneth Tsui (PCLL student), Wang Tat Max Lam (PCLL Graduate 2023)
Trusts & Trustees
Published online: February 2025
Abstract: The categorisation of knowing receipt remains uncertain in both domestic and private international law contexts, despite efforts by judges and scholars to clarify it. This article argues that knowing receipt is viewed as a breach of a continuing restorative and custodial duty owed to the beneficiary. It explains how these duties arise and outlines their content. Under this view, the traditional proprietary and fault-based perspectives on knowing receipt can be reconciled while establishing an equitable nexus for the claim. Additionally, this article suggests that this perspective aligns with the sui generis characterisation in private international law, preventing circumvention of liability.
Monday, March 24, 2025
Ilda Cristina Ferreira on The Legal Status of the Financial Action Task Force in the International Legal System (Brill)
Ilda Cristina Ferreira (PhD 2023)
Brill
Published in January 2025
356 pp.
Description: The FATF challenges traditional axioms and patently illustrates the dynamics of the international legal system. This book fills a significant gap in academic literature by studying FATF’s legal nature and its responsibilities in the international legal system as an organisation with public authority. It makes a bold argument that the FATF has gradually evolved into an international organisation, addressing international law and international organisation law discourse, combining theory and practice.
This book’s analytical framework can be applied to any organisation whose legal nature remains undefined, attempting to provide clarity and legal certainty in the international legal system’s architecture of the 21st century.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Emily Lee on Advancing Digital Economy and Financial Inclusion through Central Bank Digital Currencies (African Journal of International and Comparative Law)
Emily Lee
African Journal of International and Comparative Law, Volume 33, Issue 1, February, 2025, pp. 1–28
Published online: February 2025
Abstract: This article explores the implementation of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as a proactive measure by central banks to achieve policy objectives such as financial inclusion, data and privacy governance and economic growth in the digital economy. The design concepts of e-CNY and eNaira, the two primary retail CBDC prototypes discussed herein, are shaped by these objectives.
The analysis focuses on regulatory policies, risks and legal implications associated with the shift from conventional digital payments to CBDC payments, using e-CNY and eNaira as case studies. It discusses CBDC’s competitiveness and interoperability within the current payment landscape and other regulatory concerns, such as data and personal privacy, CBDC interface providers’ performance and scalability, cybersecurity, compliance for anti-money laundering regulations and the operational robustness and resilience of payment systems.
By examining these issues and challenges, the article aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential benefits and challenges associated with CBDC implementation. The insights drawn from the e-CNY and eNaira implementations can provide food for thought for governments that wish to work towards implementing secure and user-friendly CBDCs that coexist with traditional financial intermediaries while offering enhanced payment capabilities.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
New Issue of Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law (Volume 26, Issue 1, Feb 2025)
Monday, March 17, 2025
Daniel Bell's SCMP interview on China’s melding of Confucius and Marx
"Political theorist Daniel A. Bell reflects on China’s melding of Confucius and Marx"
Yuanyue Dang
South China Morning Post
24 February 2025
Daniel A. Bell, a Canadian political theorist specialising in Confucianism and China’s political meritocracy, is chair of political theory at the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty. He was the first foreigner to be appointed as dean of Shandong University’s school of political science and public administration, and also taught at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.
In this interview, Bell shares his views on the links between the ruling Communist Party’s guiding philosophy and Confucianism, as well as the fight against corruption and his outlook for the future of Chinese politics...
Click here to read the full interview on SCMP.
To understand more about Prof. Daniel Bell's work, please click here to read the article written by Peter Baehr on Springer Nature.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Xin He on Threat to Family Stability or Social Stability? Domestic Violence Protection Orders in Two Chinese Courts (LSI)
Xin He
Law & Social Inquiry
Published online: February 2025
Abstract: In this examination of domestic violence protection orders in two lower-level Chinese courts, the interpretation of gender violence with respect to political concerns for social stability plays an essential role in the law’s effectiveness. In an urbanized coastal area court, judges see gender violence as a direct threat to social stability. To maintain stability, they facilitate claims against gender violence. Conversely, in a rural court, judges view gender violence as a direct threat to family stability. To maintain family stability, which is closely linked to social stability, they suppress claims against gender violence. This study proposes that, when global discourses are reformulated, new forms of cultural and political appropriation emerge. It highlights the complexities that arise when law, culture, and politics intermingle in the process of law and globalization. Understanding these complexities is crucial for addressing challenges in implementing global legal reforms at the local level and ensuring protection against gender violence.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Stefano Osella on A caring academia? Afterword to the Foreword by Gráinne de Búrca, Rosalind Dixon, and Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (ICON)
Stefano Osella
International Journal of Constitutional Law
Published online: January 2025
Abstract: This Afterword to the Foreword by Gráinne de Búrca, Rosalind Dixon, and Marcela Prieto Rudolphy aims to foster the debate on the recognition of care as a means to achieve gender equality in academia. Drawing inspiration from the ongoing revaluation of care across various disciplines, including constitutional law, the article emphasizes the importance of a cultural revaluation of care within academic institutions. It interrogates whether such a shift could favor a more equitable distribution of care-related tasks and foster a symbolic move toward values such as collegiality, reciprocal nurturing and support, and relationality. Finally, the Afterword asks whether such a transformation could be a crucial first step toward a more sustainable higher-education and research environment.
Monday, March 10, 2025
New Book Edited by Yun Zhao and Jędrzej Górski: Aviation Law and Governance - Navigating Global Challenges and Conflicts (Routledge)
Aviation Law and Governance - Navigating Global Challenges and Conflicts
Edited by Jędrzej Górski, Yun Zhao
Routledge
Published in February 2025
444 pp.
Book Description: Exploring the intricate relationship between law, economics, and global politics, this book examines the regulatory environment of the aviation industry.
Friday, March 7, 2025
Cora Chan on Gender, democracy, and the legal academy: Afterword to the Foreword by Gráinne de Búrca, Rosalind Dixon, and Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (ICON)
Cora Chan
International Journal of Constitutional Law
Published online: February 2025
Abstract: This Afterword reflects on the Foreword’s three key contributions—proof of a gender gap in the legal academy, revelation of the problem’s complexity, and an exploration of solutions—from the perspective of a woman scholar specializing in constitutional law in Hong Kong, a former British colony and now a special administrative region of China. While Hong Kong is an international financial center with a strong higher education sector, and its government is explicitly committed to gender equality, the territory is steeped in traditional Chinese values and culture and has undergone a sharp authoritarian turn since the protest movement in 2019. It therefore provides an interesting vantage point from which to assess issues of gender in the legal academy. In particular, this Afterword cites and provides data substantiating the existence of a gender gap in Hong Kong’s legal academy, highlights the intersectional challenges arising from authoritarianism, marketization, and gender as well as other forms of marginalization, and underscores the relationship between gender equality and democratic governance.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Haochen Sun on The Law and Ethics of AI Creativity (St. John’s Law Review)
"The Law and Ethics of AI Creativity"
Haochen Sun
St. John's Law Review
Published online: January 2025
Monday, March 3, 2025
Jedidiah Kroncke and Haimo Li on Carsun Chang's Jefferson: A Lost Era of Transnational Sino-American Constitutional Imagination (LHR)
"Carsun Chang's Jefferson: A Lost Era of Transnational Sino-American Constitutional Imagination"
Jedidiah Kroncke and Haimo Li
Law and History Review
Published online: January 2025
Friday, February 28, 2025
Hailiang Xiong on The Legislative Adjustment of Chinese Enforcement Regulation of the International Commercial Settlement Agreement in the context of the Singapore mediation convention (JIDS)
"The Legislative Adjustment of Chinese Enforcement Regulation of the International Commercial Settlement Agreement in the context of the Singapore mediation convention"
Hailiang Xiong (LLM Graduate 2024)
Journal of International Dispute Settlement, Volume 16, Issue 1, March 2025, idae025
Published online: January 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Hui Jing and Wanyi Zhang on Enforcing Chinese charitable trusts (Trusts & Trustees)
Wanyi Zhang, Hui Jing
Trusts & Trustees, ttaf002
Published Online: January 2025
Abstract: This article examines the enforcement mechanisms of Chinese charitable trusts, highlighting the limitations of public law enforcement by civil affairs departments due to resource constraints. Through a comparative analysis of the English particular interest rule, it explores alternative enforcement frameworks, arguing that the beneficiary–recipient debate, while academically insightful, does not address practical enforcement challenges. The study suggests that the public law elements of charitable trusts necessitate a flexible, context-sensitive enforcement approach. For Chinese courts, the focus should be on whether supporting a plaintiff-charitable trust beneficiary’s claim ensures proper management of trust property and preserves the public benefit.
Monday, February 24, 2025
Scott Veitch on Friendship, Labour, Attention: Thinking with Simone Weil (CLT)
Scott Veitch
Critical Legal Thinking
Published online: January 2025
Friday, February 21, 2025
Hualing Fu on Managed freedom in precarious times: Maintaining academic freedom in transitional Hong Kong (GlobCon)
Hualing Fu
Global Constitutionalism
Published online: January 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Anfield Tam on The requisite intention for constituting a Quistclose trust (Trusts & Trustees)
Anfield Tam (PCLL student)
Trusts & Trustees
Published online: January 2025
Abstract: In China Life Trustees Ltd v China Energy Reserve and Chemical Group Overseas Co Ltd [2024] HKCFA 15, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal clarified that a positive intention for the transferor to retain beneficial interest in the transferred assets is not necessary for a Quistclose trust to arise. Rather, it suffices when the parties intended the transferred assets to be used exclusively for a specific purpose, such that it is not at the transferee’s free disposal. This note appraises the decision for disentangling the conceptual nuances between these two types of intention. The Court rightly held that the transferor’s retention of beneficial interest is merely a legal consequence of the restrictive intention, as on a correct reading of the authorities such retention need not be intended for a Quistclose trust to arise.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Daniel Bell on China in the Year 2050: A Look Backwards (Society)
Daniel A. Bell
Society
Published online: January 2025
Friday, February 14, 2025
Jedidiah Kroncke on An Empire of Anti-Democracy: The Imperial Legacies of American Territorial Labor (WLR)
Jedidiah J. Kroncke
Washington Law Review (Vol. 99, No. 4 (2024))
Published online: January 2025
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Gary Meggitt on The Changing Landscape of Professional Liabilities (New book chapter)
Gary Meggitt
in Insurability of Emerging Risks: Law, Theory and Practice, edited by Baris Soyer and Özlem Gürses (Bloomsbury Publishing, January 2025), Chapter 11, pp. 233 - 254
Published in January 2025