RGC Awards $4.6 Million in Research Funding to HKU Law 2024/25

Congratulations to our seven colleagues who were successful in the 2024-2025 round of research grant funding by Hong Kong's Research Grants Council (RGC). The seven General Research Fund (GRF) projects that were funded cover a wide range of topics, from China’s plea leniency system to the work conditions of early-career lawyers in China to the problem of animal rescue hoarding in Hong Kong. The details of the new funded projects are as follows:

GRF:

Professor Cora Chan

Liberal Regions in Illiberal States, HK$527,490

Professor Xin He

Appeals and Inequalities in China’s Plea Leniency System, HK$1,040,000

Professor Sida Liu

The Work Conditions of Early-Career Lawyers in China, HK$840,000

Professor John Zhuang Liu

The Rise and Limits of the Chinese Judiciary: Administrative Litigation in China during the Reform Period, HK$716,000

Professor Ryan Whalen

Artificial Intelligence in the Administration of the Patent System, HK$366,626

Professor Michael Ng

Judicial Independence on Trial: Archival study of political interference with the colonial Hong Kong courts (1842-1997), HK$742,000

Professor Amanda Whitfort

Responding to Animal Rescue Hoarding in Hong Kong: A Comparative and Empirical Review, HK$407,644

Call for registration: Giving a voice to the unheard victims of environmental crime (22 May 2024)

Illegal wildlife trade is the fourth most lucrative black market for transnational crime. Smuggling of endangered species is a low risk, high-profit crime, made all the more attractive to criminals in the absence of deterrent sentencing and effective enforcement.

To help legal professionals counter wildlife crime, Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Law Faculty has developed an international tool to help judges and prosecutors better understand the harms caused by illegal wildlife trade.  Bringing together law and science, her Species Victim Impact Statements initiative sets out the impacts of wildife crime for over 150 species, providing a voice for animals, plants and ecosystems in the criminal justice system. The SVIS initiative has been endorsed as an effective tool to combat wildlife crime by the United National Office on Drugs and Crime and has been included in the Nigerian Rapid Reference Guide for Prosecutors published in 2023. Professor Whitfort will talk about her approach to educating law enforcement officers in a seminar with the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime this Wednesday 22 May at 4pm. Registration is free and please click here for registration online.

Giving a voice to the unheard victims of environmental crime

A Talk By Amanda Whitfort , Prof Ray Jansen , Alastair MacBeath , Diana Chilambwe , Edward Banda (ACAZ, LLB, Cert) And Ashleigh Dore

22 May 2024

4:00 PM - 5:30 PM HKT

About This Talk

Animals and other species are often voiceless victims of environmental crimes. Such crimes were often marginalized in the legal sphere, treated as minor infractions with little regard for the impact on species and ecosystems. However, a new legal approach is reshaping how these offences are prosecuted and perceived. Species victim impact statements articulate the harm caused by environmental crimes from an animal rights perspective, the detrimental effects on species populations, the broader ecological damage as well as the associated impact on human populations.

This in an innovative approach that introduces eco-centric concerns into anthropocentric legal systems. It has grown into an effective body of practice, leading to increased sentences for environmental crimes in countries where academics and civil society organizations promoting this tactic are operating. The GI-TOC recently published a guide on the experience of those who have successfully developed and used species victim impact statements in Hong Kong, South Africa and Zambia.

This event brings together these experts to discuss why species victim impact statements are necessary, the particular challenges for their respective jurisdictions while offering guidance to assist those looking to develop these statements for use in court.

Amanda Whitfort et al on Population Estimates and the Effect of Trap-Neuter Return Program on the Free-Roaming Dog Population in Hong Kong SAR (Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science)

"Population Estimates and the Effect of Trap-Neuter Return Program on the Free-Roaming Dog Population in Hong Kong SAR"

Hannah B Tilley, Shu Ping Ho, Fiona Woodhouse & Amanda Whitfort

Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science

Published online: 05 Aug 2023

Abstract: Free-roaming dog populations ensue from irresponsible dog ownership and abandonment. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Hong Kong SAR offers practical solutions to control dog population growth by providing a range of different birth control programs. We present the first results of a trial Trap Neuter Return (TNR) program in Hong Kong SAR; with a free-roaming dog population on Cheung Chau Island (southwest). During the 3-year study, the SPCA undertook surveys to assess population size and trapped, desexed, and, where possible, rehomed free-roaming dogs. We report that a total of 182 dogs were encountered during the period. We estimate that an average of 75% of the population was desexed, reaching the threshold for successful TNR studies. The results of our study show that TNR can assist with free-roaming dog population control and provide guidance for future programs, in Asia and Hong Kong SAR.

United Nations Office in Drugs and Crime Endorses HKU's KE Species Victim Impact Statement Fund Initiative (Amanda Whitfort)

Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort's KE work on the Species Victim Impact Statement Initiative (a collaboration between the HKU Law Faculty and the School of Biological Sciences' Conservation Forensics Lab) has been endorsed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Amanda's team prepares species victim impact statements for the most highly endangered animals in illegal trade. These have been used by prosecutors to inform the courts in Hong Kong of the impact of wildlife crime and have led to a 2000% increase in sentences since they were first adopted in 2016.

https://www.svis.law.hku.hk/

     Working with the international charity, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Amanda adapted the victim statements for African pangolin species and elephants for use by prosecutors in Nigerian courts in Africa. The UNODC has now published the species victim impact statements for these species as a recommended tool for effective prosecutions in Nigeria. The victim impact statements appear in the Nigerian Rapid Reference Guide for Prosecutors and Investigators of Wildlife Crime, which was launched by the Nigerian Minister of the Environment on World Wildlife Day, 3 March 2023. 

       The development of the Rapid Reference Guide for prosecutors and investigators is one of the key deliverables of the National Strategy to Combat Wildlife and Forest Crime in Nigeria 2022- 2026. This National Strategy is the first of its kind, with a five year plan to lay the foundation for sustained efforts towards achieving wildlife conservation in Nigeria.

     The HKU SVIS Initiative is proud to be impacting justice responses to wildlife crime globally. Amanda is now working with judges, prosecutors and law enforcement in ten countries ensuring this HKU funded Knowledge Exchange initiative continues to support the protection of endangered species around the world.

      Amanda has spoken about the project in a guest blog for the EIA published on their website this week.

New Report on Exotic Pet Trade in Hong Kong: Wild, Threatened, Farmed: Hong Kong's Invisible Pets

A report released this week by local NGO ADM Capital Foundation, co-authored by Assoc Prof Amanda Whitfort focuses on the exotic pet trade in Hong Kong. The report highlights the lack of transparency in the trade, the need for updated regulations to better control smuggling of live endangered species for rare animal collectors, the unsuitability of many exotic species to be kept as pets and the negative effects on conservation and animal welfare when exotic pets are intentionally or accidentally released into local ecosystems.

     “Hong Kong's lack of a positive list of acceptable exotic pets and failure to look behind imports of large numbers of animals from suspicious source countries, which should set off alarms for law enforcement agencies, encourages the importation of smuggled animals for the pet trade and is sending species that are at serious risk of extinction more quickly towards that fate” said Whitfort. “Our current policies and laws undermine the objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity” she added. 

     Whitfort called on government to

• improve oversight of wild animal trading licences, removing opportunities for laundering of smuggled animals
• impose possession licence requirements on all private owners of endangered species
• introduce a positive list of acceptable pets that can be imported into and possessed in Hong Kong
• prohibit mercy release of animals and the businesses that support the practice within the Territory
• improve regulation of the pet ttrade to protect animal and public health.

The press report had input from the SPCA (Hong Kong), the Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden, WWF (HK), local academics working on wild animal trade and private vets working with exotic pets.

           Amanda Whitfort and ADM Capital Foundation Team and Dr Woodhouse from the SPCA (HK)

Amanda Whitfort Meets Malaysian Prosecutors and Judges to Explain Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) Initiative

On 11 March 2022, Ms Amanda Whitfort gave a 1 hour presentation on the Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) initiative and how to sentence wildlife crime effectively to Malaysian prosecutors and judges in a training workshop organised by Panthera (USA NGO) and Justice for Wildlife Malaysia (NGO). For more information on the SVIS Initiative, you can access the website at https://www.svis.law.hku.hk. 

Nijman & Shepherd (2015)

HKU Law Awarded Five KE Impact Projects 2021/2022

The University of Hong Kong's Knowledge Exchange (KE) Funding Scheme for Impact Projects supports projects that have the potential to create social, economic, environmental or cultural impacts for industry, business or the community by building on expertise or knowledge in the University and projects designed to collect evidence for corroboration and evaluation of impacts. Engagement projects that aim to benefit non-academic communities beyond Hong Kong are strongly encouraged.

     Five projects are supported under the KE Impact Project Grant Scheme in the 2021/22 with an exceptional outstanding case being awarded with the maximum funding amount of HK$150,000. Congratulations to :

• Ms Amanda Whitfort "Wildlife Crime: Knowledge Transfer for Informed Sentencing in Greater China". This ongoing interdisciplinary project involves a collaboration between Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort, Faculty of Law, Dr Caroline Dingle, School of Biological Sciences and Dr Gary Ades, Head of Fauna, Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden, in producing species victim impact statements, showing the impact of wildlife crime on endangered species. These statements aid the Agricultural Fisheries and Conservation Department, Customs and Excise Department and the Department of Justice (Hong Kong) and Forestry police and prosecutors in the PRC to effectively prosecute wildlife crimes, and assist the judiciary in Hong Kong to deter, through effective sentencing, wildlife offences against Hong Kong legislation.

• Ms Isabella Wenting Liu and Ms Stephanie Biedermann “Understanding Rule of Law for Secondary School Students”. The project aims at enhancing Hong Kong secondary school students’ understanding of the rule of law and its crucial role as the foundation of Hong Kong’s success and institutions. HKU law students will develop teaching plans on different rule of law topics and deliver legal talks at secondary schools. This project provides a platform for HKU students and secondary schools to form connections and develop a forum for discussion on foundational legal concepts. Teaching materials will be made accessible to the wider community through the ROLE website (www.role.hku.hk).

• Ms Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts “Employment & Labour Claims Knowledge Hub”. In partnership with LITE Lab@HKU, A2J and HKWWA, this project seeks to implement the Hub; a technology-based caselaw databank for use by the primary beneficiary HKWWA. The Hub will provide the means by which HKWWA can collect, collate and analyse labour and employment caselaw and in turn facilitate their mission of promoting and improving women workers’ interests and status in Hong Kong through their advocacy work. Once established, the project intends to make the Hub open-sourced and available to other NGOs. This project aims to achieve greater transparency in the judicial decision-making process and to increase access to justice for grassroots, female workers in respect of their labour and employment law issues in Hong Kong.

• Ms Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts “Legal Advice Programme for Grassroots Women Workers”. This project aims to address the lack of employment and labour law expertise and legal resources available to the grassroots women workers served by the primary beneficiary, the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association (“HKWWA”). By conducting a needs and capacity assessment, the project will first seek to understand what HKWWA, and its clients identify as their existing and future legal needs and what legal knowledge and resources exist within HKWWA. Following this preliminary analysis, the project will revise and expand upon HKWWA’s existing legal case handling practices and knowledge base and design and implement a bespoke monthly community legal advice programme similar to those utilised by other Hong Kong NGOs.

• Dr Richard Wai Seng Wu “Building Better Lawyers in China and Australia in the Post-Covid-19 Era Through Strengthening Their Capabilities in Innovation, Creativity and Ethics with Experiential Learning”. This interdisciplinary project aims to build better lawyers in China and Australia by strengthening their capabilities in innovation, creativity and ethics in the post-Covid-19 era. Cutting-edge knowledge in these areas will be delivered through webinars to lawyers in these two countries by academics from HKU, UC Berkeley, Melbourne University and Birmingham University, as well as law firm partners, legal counsel and legal technologist who have local experience in China and Australia. This project seeks to create social impact by raising Chinese and Australian lawyers’ awareness of the importance of innovation, creativity and ethics for globalized legal practice in post-Covid-19 era.

New HKU SPCA Study on Animal Cruelty in Hong Kong (Amanda Whitfort)

On Friday 3 September, the Law Faculty's Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort and Dr Fiona Woodhouse Deputy Director (Welfare) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Hong Kong) published an empirical study of animal cruelty cases in Hong Kong. The study was funded by the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the HKSAR government. It examined 335 cruelty cases in the SPCA's police investigation database from 2013 to 2019 and identified patterns of offending, including which types of animals are most at risk and in what circumstances.

Dogs were the primary victims in all categories of animal abuse. In 75% of prosecutions for active maltreatment or neglect-related cruelty the offender was male. In most cases the offender was the dog's owner or a family member of its owner. The majority of neglect cases involved mongrel dogs being abandoned inside private premises without food/water. In nearly all cases of abandonment, the animals were found alone inside rented village houses (with their owners not living on site) and, in nearly one third of cases, the animals died. In many cases the dogs found were significant in number and had been collected from strays by persons who did not have sufficient financial resources or time to care for them adequately. The study found action is necessary to educate owners to voluntarily surrender animals they can no longer care for appropriately rather than place their welfare at high risk by abandoning them. Government policies prohibiting the keeping of dogs in public housing, alongside historical dog population management strategies, have both contributed to the serious problem of abandonment of dogs in Hong Kong.

In two significant animal hoarding cases, where the dogs had started to eat each other to survive, more than 100 animals had been collected by the offenders and placed in so-called 'rescue' shelters. The shelters were accepting animals from members of the public in exchange for donations. To counter the risk to animals in unregulated shelters, there is an urgent need to introduce shelter licensing legislation. A further reason to regulate animal rescue shelters is the lack of financial transparency as to how public donations are being used.

Other findings of the study include the need for:

• a duty of care for animals to be introduced to compliment current anti-cruelty legislation;
• regulations to control grooming parlours, animal trainers and boarding facilities;
• new offences to deter animal poisoners;
• improved regulations to control the use of traps;
• a new offence to combat animals falling from heights; and
• prohibitions on mercy release of wild animals.

A full report of the study can be read on the Faculty staff webpage for Associate Professor Whitfort at https://www.law.hku.hk/academic_staff/amanda-whitfort/

Amanda Whitfort's KE work achieves OSCO amendment

Today the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance Cap 455 was amended to define smuggling of wildlife as organised and serious crime. This amendment will allow authorities to enforce the criminal law more effectively against the syndicates and kingpins behind the international trade in endangered species. Over the past 2 years over 900 tonnes of of wildlife was seized in Hong Kong. These seizures continue a decade-long upward trend that has seen the decimation of rhino, elephant and pangolin populations, globally, while the criminals funding the slaughter grow rich. The enhanced investigative and punitive powers that will now be accessible to law enforcement authorities tasked with combatting wildlife crime are a potential game changer, not just for Hong Kong, but regionally. If applied proactively, the OSCO amendment will result in critical deterrence of criminals seeking to exploit Hong Kong's porous borders to smuggle endangered species.

      Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort has worked for over 7 years to bring about this amendment. She has assisted the Wildlife Trade Working Group (a group of academics and NGOS convened by ADM Capital Foundation)in their advocacy, provided research on illegal trade to government and authored the White Paper on Enhanced Enforcement Strategies to protect Endangered Species that led Elizabeth Quat to propose the OSCO amendment as a private members bill in 2020.

      The HKU Law Faculty is also host to Whitfort's species victim impact statement initiative https://www.svis.law.hku.hk/ which aims to ensure prosecutors and judges understand the serious effects of wildlife crime on biodiversity and ecosystems globally. This project has resulted in a 2000% increase in sentences for wildlife crime since its inception in 2017.

Amanda Whitfort on New Bill Seeks to End Hong Kong’s Days as an Illegal Wildlife Trade Hub (Mongabay)

"New bill seeks to end Hong Kong’s days as an illegal wildlife trade hub"
Mongabay 
Published on 26 May 2021

In 2019, Hong Kong customs authorities inspected a cargo ship bound for Vietnam. Hidden beneath slabs of frozen meat were 8.3 metric tons of illegal scales from about 13,800 pangolins, and more than 2.1 metric tons of tusks from about 200 elephants, with a combined value of about $8 million.

     This was one of the largest wildlife seizures in Hong Kong history, but far from an isolated incident. In 2018 and 2019, Hong Kong authorities confiscated more than 649 metric tons of illegal wildlife and wildlife products across 1,404 seizures, according to a new report by Hong Kong’s ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF). Wildlife crime is so rampant in Hong Kong ... “We’ve come to the view that this must be because we’re targeting the wrong people,” Amanda Whitfort, a barrister and law professor at the University of Hong Kong who drafted the new bill, told Mongabay in an interview. “We’re targeting the mules, the people that are replaceable, the people who’ve got 50 kilos … of rhino horn or scales of pangolins in their luggage. But we’re not getting the criminal syndicates that are behind this very lucrative transnational crime.” ... Click here to read the full text. 

Amanda Whitfort on Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance (OSCO) amendments & Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS)

An important step towards the acceptance of wildlife crime as organised and serious crime has been achieved with the CE providing her consent, under Article 74 of the Basic Law, to a private member's Bill to amend OSCO being presented in LegCo.

The Bill co-drafted by Amanda Whitfort and introduced to LegCo by lawmaker Elizabeth Quat in March 2021 requests the amendment to OSCO, which provides for a combination of enhanced enforcement and deterrent methods to investigate and prosecute serious wildlife crimes.

Unlike serious offences under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance or the Theft Ordinance, offences under the Protection of Endangered Species Ordinance, Cap 586, have not been classified as ‘specified offences’ in Schedule 1 of OSCO. This has been a significant omission, given the organised nature of the transnational trade in endangered species. Despite the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol endorsing a ‘follow the money’ approach, focusing on the syndicates behind wildlife smuggling, enforcement in Hong Kong has traditionally focused on the mules in the supply chain, when offenders are caught red-handed trying to smuggle in the species. Failure to include Cap 586 offences in Schedule 1 of OSCO has also meant Hong Kong courts are not empowered, under the Ordinance, to confiscate the proceeds of organised crime’s wildlife trafficking.

The Hong Kong government increased the maximum penalties for wildlife crime in 2018. Unfortunately record-breaking seizures of smuggled wildlife have continued unabated. The OSCO amendment would go further to allow Hong Kong to effectively deter the criminal networks funding the extinction of endangered species.

Here is the link to the White Paper which convinced EQ to take up the Bill:

https://www.admcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Protection-of-Endangered-Species-White-Paper.pdf

There is an SCMP story on it last week: 

https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3130438/hong-kongs-leading-role-global-extinction-crisis-hub-illegal-wildlife

Amanda Whitfort will be giving a talk on the OSCO amendments and my SVIS (species victim impact statement) project on 7 May on Zoom at HKU.   Details are as follows:

Speaker: Ms Amanda Whitfort

Title: New Law Reform Initiatives to Improve the Protection of Endangered Species in Hong Kong

Zoom details:

Topic: E&B Seminar Series

Time: May 7, 2021 04:00 PM Hong Kong SAR

Join Zoom Meeting: https://hku.zoom.com.cn/j/91675926608?pwd=d2ZoaElKS2pnWlVQS1lvaittSWtDdz09

Meeting ID：916 7592 6608

Password：329737

Amanda Whitfort on Hong Kong’s Leading Role in the Global Extinction Crisis, as Hub of Illegal Wildlife Trade, and the Legal Amendment that could Change that (SCMP)

"Hong Kong’s leading role in the global extinction crisis, as hub of illegal wildlife trade, and the legal amendment that could change that"

SCMP Lifestyle

23 April 2021

• The scales and carcasses of tens of thousands of pangolins are shipped illegally through Hong Kong every year
• Existing laws do little to stem this trade, but a proposed law change to treat wildlife smuggling as organised crime could make a big difference

Pangolins have clever defence mechanisms. When threatened they curl up into a tight ball – the name pangolin is derived from the Malay word pengguling, meaning “one who rolls up” – the hard scales covering their bodies overlap to create an “armour”. Like skunks, pangolins can spray a noxious fluid from glands near their anuses to keep predators at bay.

      Sadly these protective tools can’t deter humans, who have poached the anteater-like creatures to near-extinction, the trade fuelled by false claims in traditional Chinese medicine that pangolin scales relieve ailments from asthma to poor kidney function, and can improve lactation. On top of that, in China and Vietnam pangolin meat is considered a delicacy. 

...

     The legislative reform, says Amanda Whitfort, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, would facilitate the use of powers by enforcement authorities to tackle wildlife crime that are currently reserved for serious crimes such as drug and arms trafficking.

      It would allow the investigation of persons or materials with connections to organised crime as well as the confiscation of proceeds of crimes, she says, and could serve as a powerful disincentive to wildlife criminals, preventing the reinvestment of profits to fund further criminal activities.

... Click here to read the full text. 

New KE Initiative: HKU "Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) Initiative" (Amanda Whitfort)

HKU "Species Victim Impact Statement (SVIS) Initiative" : giving wildlife a voice in courts

What are Species Victim Impact Statements?
Species Impact Victim Statements (SVIS) explain to lawyers and judges the harm that wildlife crime has done to individual animals, species and ecosystems.​
      A human victim of crime can make a victim impact statement alerting the court to the harm suffered as a result of the crime.
      Non-human victims of wildlife crime have no similar voice in court. In the absence of training in ecology and conservation science, it is difficult for prosecutors and judges to assess the impact of wildlife crime.
Where harms are underestimated, defendants receive inadequate sentences that do not effectively deter wildlife offending.
     Species Victim Impact Statements help to ensure informed sentences for wildlife crimes.
 

To know more about SVIS Initiative, click: https://www.svis.law.hku.hk/

Amanda Whitfort on the Links between Wildlife Trade, Animal Health and Human Health at the Sustainability Summit

Amanda Whitfort is in the second position from the right

Amanda Whitfort spoke in mid-January 2021 on the links between wildlife trade, animal health and human health in a sustainability summit jointly organised by the Institute of International Sustainable Development, the Hong Kong Chinese Manufacturers' Association, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Consulate General of Finland. Her newest research on the links between poor animal health and welfare, wildlife trade and COVID-19 was published this week in the Journal of Environmental Law. In her article, COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China: Legislating to Protect Wild Animal Health and Welfare in the Wake of a Global Pandemic​ she argues that the current legal framework to protect wild animal health, and consequently human health, is not working. In a significant part, this is because there is no international agreement to protect animal welfare. The sole international reference organisation for animal health and disease control, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), recognises that animal health and welfare are inextricably linked yet international law relating to wild animals has historically focused on the conservation or the health of the animals, and, in a few instances on both, but rarely on their links with animal welfare. In the wake of COVID-19, this omission must now be rectified. Going forward decisions about animal welfare law and policy require a global vision. 

Amanda Whitfort on COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China (Journal of Environmental Law)

"COVID-19 and Wildlife Farming in China: Legislating to Protect Wild Animal Health and Welfare in the Wake of a Global Pandemic"

Amanda Whitfort

Journal of Environmental Law

Published on 12 January 2021

Abstract: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has exposed serious deficiencies in the current legal framework to protect wild animal health, and consequently human health. As noted by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), animal health and welfare are inextricably linked. However, there is no international agreement to promote animal welfare and neither the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora nor the Convention on Biological Diversity, adequately address the welfare of the species they seek to conserve. While the OIE provides guidance on animal health and welfare standards for common agricultural species, it has provided limited guidance for the farming of wild species. China’s wildlife farming industry has been linked with the spread of COVID-19 but, to date, China has introduced few national welfare controls to protect the health of wild animals bred for human consumption. In the wake of COVID-19, these omissions must be remedied to provide appropriate safeguards to ensure animal health and welfare and protect public health.

New Book: Archbold Hong Kong 2021 (Sweet & Maxwell)

ARCHBOLD HONG KONG 2021

Editor-in-Chief: The Hon Mr Justice Bokhary

General Editor: Professor Simon Young

Sweet & Maxwell

December 2020

Preface by the General Editor

Archbold’s first general editor was John Frederick Archbold. By analogy, Archbold Hong Kong’s first general editor would be considered Hong Kong’s Archbold. Sadly Hong Kong’s Archbold passed away on 28 April 2020. This is a fitting title for Dr Gerard McCoy SC. His encyclopedic knowledge of the law, especially the criminal law, was well known and undoubtedly a matter of judicial notice in many countries. Mr Justice Frank Stock, in his preface to the first edition of this work, described Dr McCoy as “a tireless worker, possessed of a meticulous eye and as well-versed in the principles and detail of the criminal law as one could wish”. Though he appeared for government in a good number of cases, he had a big heart for the underdog and an unrelenting sense of justice. He was also very much reform-minded, which I witnessed having the honour of working with him on two law reform committees and two landmark Court of Final Appeal cases on joint criminal enterprise and refugee non-refoulement. In court, he was as distinguished as any silk who has ever practiced in this jurisdiction, but he was also a compassionate leader who could instantly dissolve the nerves of a junior at the start of a hearing by offering a fist bump with the words ‘Go Team’. He was a lawyer’s lawyer, one who would not hesitate to offer advice, or a case reference, to any fellow member of the bar who sought his assistance. In his practice, he continuously prodded the law, and for that we got to learn so much more about the law, whatever may have been the result in the case. One need only have regard to the cases he handled in his last year to appreciate his unparalleled contribution to the criminal law in Hong Kong. Those cases enhanced our understanding of the right to interpreter assistance in criminal trials (CACC 135/2017; CACC 320/2016), the right to privacy and police searches of mobile phones (CACV 270/2017); remedial interpretation of the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance (CACC 237/2015), the rule in Browne v Dunn (CACC 65/2017), and the constitutionality of sentences for male buggery offences (CACC 361/2018). This is only a small sample of a corpus of law which he helped to generate. 

    In his preface, echoing the words of Archbold, Dr McCoy wrote that this work would aim “to become ‘a practically useful book’ which identifies and collates the current substantive, procedural, evidential and adjectival criminal law of Hong Kong”. In this spirit, the current edition collates the contents of 《中華人民共和國香港特別行政區維護國家安全法》(Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), which was applied locally on 30 June 2020. This National Security Law (NSL) is the most important piece of criminal law legislation applied in Hong Kong in recent times, and practitioners are slowly coming to terms with it. The NSL is currently covered across Chapters 2, 5, 15, 19, 26, 41 and 42, but for the future the aim is to capture NSL jurisprudential developments mainly in Chapter 26, concerned with national security offences.

    Hong Kong’s Archbold ended his preface with the four Chinese characters, 金科玉律, which was likely a reference to Viscount Sankey’s “one golden thread” famously penned in Woolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462, 481. It is a fitting reminder that even in the post-NSL era persons charged with a criminal offence are always presumed innocent, the duty being on the prosecution to prove the person’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

    I thank my three able assistant editors (Wilson Lui, Eric Chan, Josh Baker), the entire team of contributing editors who remain so dedicated to this work, the Editor-in-Chief for his wise counsel, and Thomson Reuters (Kevin Stokes, Stephen Blackwell, Abdul Azeem Ali) for all their assistance over the past year.

Professor Simon NM Young

Parkside Chambers

October 2020

HKU Law academics serving as Contributing Editors in this year's volume include Amanda Whitfort (1. The Indictment; 46. Animals), Simon Young (11. The Hearsay Rule; 19. Human Rights), and Michael Jackson (17. Principals and Secondary Parties; 18. Strict Liability).

HKU Law Awarded Three KE Impact Project Awards 2019/2020

The University of Hong Kong's Knowledge Exchange (KE) Funding Scheme for Impact Projects supports projects that have the potential to create social, economic, environmental or cultural impacts for industry, business or the community by building on expertise or knowledge in the University and projects designed to collect evidence for corroboration and evaluation of impacts. Engagement projects that aim to benefit non-academic communities beyond Hong Kong are strongly encouraged. 

     The Faculty of Law was successful in obtaining three awards in the 2019/20 round of funding, for most cases in the amount of or less than HK$100,000 except one exceptional outstanding case in the amount of HK$150,000. Congratulations to :

• Ms Amanda Whitfort "Wildlife Crime: Knowledge Transfer for Informed Sentencing in Greater China". This ongoing and interdisciplinary project involves a collaboration between Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort, Faculty of Law, Dr Caroline Dingle, School of Biological Sciences and Dr Gary Ades, Head of Fauna, Kadoorie Farm and Botanical Garden, in producing a series of wildlife crime impact reports (similar to victim impact statements for endangered species) to aid the Agricultural Fisheries and Conservation Department, Customs and Excise Department and the Department of Justice in effectively prosecuting, and the judiciary in sentencing wildlife crime, under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance (Cap 170) and the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance (Cap 586). 

• Dr Richard Wu "Empowering Local School Teachers' Capabilities in Responding to Covid-19-Related Legal Issues Through Experiential Learning". This interdisciplinary project aims to empower local teachers’ capabilities by equipping them with common law concepts and values to respond to COVID-related legal issues in the school setting. Legal knowledge with real life examples will be delivered through experiential learning workshops by academics from HKU Law Faculty, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Education University of Hong Kong, as well as barrister-at-law and legal counsel with knowledge and experience in dealing with COVID-related legal issues. Moreover, this project seeks to create social impact by raising local school teachers’ awareness of legal issues in the school setting that may arise from COVID-19. 

• Mr Brian Tang "Fostering Law, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship (LITE) through one stop legal online information, tools and resources on LITE Lab @ HKU website". LITE Lab@HKU seeks to be Hong Kong’s first-stop online self-help legal resource for startup companies, social entrepreneurs and non-profit associations who face many legal related issues and challenges setting-up and operationalizing through student-created introductory and user-friendly self-help information, tools and resources. This initiative supports Hong Kong government and HKU’s focus on cultivating and supporting technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. LITE Lab@HKU seeks to build on the great tradition at HKU Faculty of Law’s of assisting Hong Kong citizens through the Community Legal Information Centre (CLIC) website initiatives and its specialized segments for Youth CLIC, Senior CLIC, and Family CLIC.

Amanda Whitfort Featured in "How the Illegal Trade in Endangered Wild Animals could be Curbed by a Law Change in Hong Kong" (SCMP)

"How the illegal trade in endangered wild animals could be curbed by a law change in Hong Kong"
SCMP

13 November 2020

Seizures of smuggled wild animals are so big in Hong Kong that they are measured in the tens of tonnes. In 2019 alone, according to government figures, 30 tonnes of endangered species – live birds, insects, reptiles, fish and mammals – were seized. The figures exclude animal parts such as ivory and pangolin scales, and the wood of endangered trees.

      Despite the huge volumes involved, law professor Amanda Whitfort says the situation is “the elephant in the room that nobody wants to see”.

     “Wildlife crime in Hong Kong has been severely under-punished,” says the barrister and environmental law expert at the University of Hong Kong.

     “Ridiculously low sentences have been handed out; they do not act as deterrents. And we have never, ever had a prosecution in Hong Kong that goes beyond the mule. We only get the guy who got paid a few hundred dollars, along with his ticket to Hong Kong. He is immediately replaced with someone else.

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Whitfort says that when a suspected wildlife trafficker is apprehended in Hong Kong, the trail usually goes cold.

      “The suspect has the right to remain silent, and so he refuses to answer questions and provide information about who hired him to move the contraband into and through Hong Kong,” she says. “Investigators do not routinely pursue the financial investigations necessary to find out who is behind the shipment. The trail of investigation stops, the result is a light sentence – focused on the mule.”

      Treating wildlife crime as an organised and serious crime under the law would change that, says Whitfort, because coercive powers of investigation currently reserved for serious crimes such as drugs and weapons trafficking could be used.

     Investigators could use court orders to compel suspected wildlife smugglers to answer questions and force them to produce material, such as business records kept in Hong Kong or elsewhere, which could help establish the chain of people involved. Police would also have options if the trail led abroad.

     “Hong Kong has agreements for co-investigation with over 30 other governments, so the transnational nature of the crime can be combated through international cooperation in the tracing of assets and sharing of seized proceeds,” says Whitfort.  Click here to read the full text.

New HKU Law Report on Wildlife Trade in Hong Kong (HKU Press Release)

"HKU law professor releases report on wildlife trade in Hong Kong and recommendations on legislative changes to combat illegal activities"

23 Oct 2020

HKU Press Release

Unsustainable and illegal trade in wildlife threatens endangered and vulnerable species. The legislation and policies adopted by the Hong Kong government on both legal and illegal trade have significant impact on endangered species globally.

     Hong Kong is a wildlife trading hub. In 2018, Hong Kong SAR reported in the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Trade Database the import of over 350 CITES listed species from 36 territories, in over 40 different forms, ranging from live animals to whole skins and finished carvings.

     Half of rhino horn and tiger bone smuggling cases in China came through Hong Kong

In addition, reported wildlife smuggling cases prosecuted in Mainland China between 2014 and 2018 show that, in 50% of cases involving the smuggling of rhino horn and tiger bone, the contraband entered the Mainland via Hong Kong.

Wildlife offences need to be recognised as serious and organised under HK law

In order to effectively deter increasing levels of wildlife smuggling through Hong Kong, wildlife offences should be recognised as serious criminal offences under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap 455. In addition, greater efforts should be made to combat the laundering of illegally caught animals through Hong Kong’s legal trade and improved traceability measures should be adopted to monitor the movement of live-traded animals.

     Commencing in 2017, Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort of the Faculty of Law and Dr Fiona Woodhouse, Deputy Director (Welfare) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (HK), with the support of GRF Grant (No 17655316) provided by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong, undertook a two year study of the effectiveness of Hong Kong’s laws and policies controlling trade in endangered and threatened species of animals. During the course of the study, 12 stakeholders representing government, academia, NGOs and the trade were interviewed about the effectiveness of the current framework. All agreed that the increasing volume of both legal trade and illegal smuggling of wildlife has made the current legislation difficult to enforce.

     The reviewers compared Hong Kong’s current legislation and policy on importing and possessing wildlife with the best practice in the EU, USA and Australia and made 38 recommendations to improve the enforcement and impact of Hong Kong’s laws and policies to control legal and illegal trade in endangered and vulnerable species. These include amending the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance to include wildlife crimes, identifying trades that are particularly vulnerable to the laundering of endangered species, developing specific action plans to combat offending and imposing strict identification controls to ensure the traceability through the supply chain of all live-traded animals.

Amendment of Cap. 586 was important but not sufficiently deterrent

In mid-2018, the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance was amended to permit wildlife crimes to be prosecuted as indictable offences. However, wildlife crimes have yet to be regarded as serious crimes under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, despite multi-million-dollar (USD) wildlife smuggling seizures being recorded in the Territory.

     Between 2013 and 2019, seizures made by the Customs and Excise Department represented over HK$767 million in trafficked wildlife, including 22 metric tonnes of ivory, 70 metric tonnes of pangolin (the scales and carcasses of which are estimated to have involved the killing of over 138,000 pangolins) and 66 metric tonnes of other endangered species (mainly reptiles).

Despite increase in seizure volumes and values over the past decade, there has been no prosecution of wildlife smuggling networks in Hong Kong

Smuggling is a transnational activity, often involving well-resourced groups. However, despite the high value and volume of seizures, there is no specialised investigative team nor sufficiently robust legislation to investigate and prosecute such networks. The detection of seizures, though important, can be regarded as an indicator of the volume of illegal trade passing through Hong Kong, rather than a measure of success at limiting the trade.

     Despite Hong Kong’s increasingly large-scale seizures, particularly from shipping containers, no wildlife traffickers have ever been prosecuted for money laundering related offences and no syndicates indicted for wildlife smuggling. This is the direct result of the Hong Kong government’s continuing failure to recognise wildlife crimes as specified offences under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance. Recognising wildlife crimes as serious crimes, like other trafficking offences, under the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, would unleash the full force of investigative powers necessary to effectively combat Hong Kong’s increasingly serious wildlife trafficking problem. The study’s primary recommendation is therefore to amend the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap 455, to include serious wildlife crimes as specified offences.

Identifying trades at high risk for laundering

The study revealed significant concern that Hong Kong’s legal trade is being used for illegal activity. This has resulted from extremely limited traceability in the supply chain for most endangered species. Highly endangered species enter Hong Kong illegally in two ways: smuggling or laundering.

Smuggling

Hong Kong is a well-known smuggling hub for highly endangered and costly reptile pet species. Species without permits for entry are frequently discovered secreted inside luggage on airplanes, in the back of cross border trucks and in the holds of boats entering Hong Kong waters. Along with the obvious and serious animal welfare concerns associated with the smuggling of live animals, evasion of quarantine controls puts Hong Kong people and animals at risk of zoonotic disease outbreaks.

Laundering

Where the imports of animals are declared, endangered and illegally smuggled species are often mixed together with legal species to evade identification by law enforcement authorities.

     Hong Kong imports up to a million reptiles annually for food and the pet trade, but the volume and current system make it impossible to determine how many of these animals are sold, consumed, abandoned or die in the trade. Once species have entered Hong Kong, loopholes in the current control regimes allow for easy laundering of animals through licensed traders. These loopholes result from the loosening of government requirements for possession licences in 2006 which have resulted in the numbers of applications for import licenses and possession licenses dropping by almost 90%, in 15 years. With import permits for controlled species now based on individual consignments, or keeping premises, import permits are no longer required for individual animals and the laundering of smuggled species has become much easier for criminals.

Improving traceability of live traded species

In the absence of individual possession licences which would help to identify individual animals, unscrupulous traders can claim wild-caught reptiles, birds and fish are the result of captive breeding or replace legally imported animals with those procured illegally, in breach of Hong Kong’s efforts to enforce the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

    The AFCD has previously done extensive studies to evaluate traceability in the dog trade and the ivory trade, subsequently closing loopholes that had enabled widespread laundering in both trades.

    The reviewers suggest that traceability in the endangered species trade be similarly studied, so that all sales of controlled animals in Hong Kong can be traced back to a verifiable legal source for public health, conservation and welfare protection. In 2016, AFCD’s Animal Management Division rectified similar problems in the dog trade by amending Cap 139B Public Health (Animals and Birds) (Trading and Breeding) to require the origin and transfer of all imports, breeding and sales to be documented by traders. Similar controls should be put on the sale of live endangered species.

For the full report, please click here.  For related press coverage, see RTHK (2 Nov 2020).

For media enquiries, please contact:

Amanda Whitfort, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, HKU (Email: whitfort@hku.hk)

Melanie Wan, Senior Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office, HKU (Tel: 2859 2600 / Email: melwkwan@hku.hk)

Amanda Whitfort to Speak at Round Table 'Countering the Wildlife Trade Crisis in Hong Kong' on 13 October 2020 (American Chamber of Commerce)

Amanda Whitfort's research has identified Hong Kong as a hub for the illegal trade in endangered species. Between 2013 and 2020, customs officers in Hong Kong seized over HK$767 million in trafficked wildlife. These included over 22 metric tonnes of ivory, 70 metric tonnes of pangolin (scales and carcasses), 1,946 metric tonnes of illegal wood and 66 metric tonnes of other endangered species (mainly reptiles). Those quantities are conservatively estimated to equate to the deaths of over 3,000 elephants, 67 rhinos and 188,000 pangolins. Trafficked animals have been found to be laundered through Hong Kong’s traditional Chinese medicine industry, used as decorative arts, consumed as food and sold as pets.

     The trafficking and laundering of endangered species are serious crimes with dire global consequences. Their commission requires the full weight of legislative response from the Hong Kong government. To better deter offenders, Ms Whitfort has advocated the re-classification of wildlife crimes as organised and serious crimes under HK's Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance. She will discuss her research on wildlife offending and recommendations for law reform at a roundtable event organised by the American Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday Oct 13th 2020.