HKU ranks 9th and wins M. Cherif Bassiouni Award – Top Memorials from the National & Regional Rounds for Written Memorial in the Jessup Moot in Washington DC

From left: Mr Thomas Lam (Coach), Mr Matthew See, Ms Cherie Cheung, Mr Jonathan Ho, Mr Evan Robinson, Mr Fergus Tam (Coach)

Congratulations to HKU Jessup team for winning the M. Cherif Bassiouni Award – Top Memorials from the National & Regional Rounds for Written Memorial, in the Jessup Moot in Washington DC.

After prevailing as the Overall Champion in the regional rounds of the 2026 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the HKU Jessup Team represented Hong Kong in the White & Case Jessup International Rounds held in Washington DC, USA from 28 March 2026 to 4 April 2026. 

Out of more than 700 teams who participated in National Rounds and Regional Rounds, 164 teams went on to participate in the White & Case Jessup International Rounds in one of the largest and most prestigious international mooting competitions in the world. 

This year, the Team captured the M. Cherif Bassiouni Award (known until 2025 as the Hardy C. Dillard Award) for ranking 9th worldwide out of more than 700 teams for its excellent combined scores of both the Applicant and Respondent memorials. This is the first time HKU has won the M. Cherif Bassiouni Award (or its predecessor) since 2006. 

The M. Cherif Bassiouni Award recognises excellence in Memorial writing. The Memorials of the Team with the highest total Memorial score in each National or Regional Round shall be entered to compete for the M. Cherif Bassiouni Award. Each Memorial eligible to compete for the M. Cherif Bassiouni Award is graded by five judges. 

This year’s Jessup moot problem concerned the issues of intervention of non-party states, indigenous rights, general principles of international law and immunities of state-owned enterprises. The 2026 HKU Team, consisting of Cherie Cheung (PCLL), Jonathan Ho (PCLL), Evan Robinson (PCLL), and Matthew See (LLB III), displayed excellence in both written and oral advocacy at all stages of the competition. 

The Team would like to express their sincerest gratitude to the coaches, Mr Fergus Tam and Mr Thomas Lam, for their valuable feedback and support in their final year of coaching HKU’s Jessup Team. The Team would also like to thank the guest judges, Ms Natalie So, Mr Ryan Cheung, Mr Raphael Leung, Mr Jason Louie, Mr Alex CH Chan, Mr Ambrose Yu, Ms Tiffany Ng, Ms Faith Lee, Ms Holly Leung, Ms Ally Chan, Mr Leo Pang, Mr Chung Hin Yue, and Ms Veronica Yu for their kind assistance, helpful advice and rigorous advocacy training before the Hong Kong regional round, as well as in preparation for the international rounds.

HKU Jessup Team crowned 2026 Hong Kong Overall Champion

The HKU Jessup Team was declared the Hong Kong Overall Champion in the 2026 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition on 28 February 2026. The Jessup Moot is also known as one of the most prestigious international mooting competitions in the world. This year’s Jessup problem concerned the issues of intervention of non-party states, indigenous rights, general principles of international law and immunities of state-owned enterprises.

The Team consists of Cherie Cheung (PCLL), Jonathan Ho (PCLL), Evan Robinson (PCLL), and Matthew See (LLB3). In addition to the Champion title, the Team was awarded both the Best Applicant Memorial Award and the Best Respondent Memorial Award, as well as two Best Oralist awards, with Evan Robinson and Cherie Cheung winning the 1st and 3rd 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 Ryan Cheung, Mr Raphael Leung, Mr Jason Louie, Ms Faith Lee, Ms Holly Leung, Ms Ally Chan, Mr Leo Pang, Mr Chung Hin Yue, and Ms Veronica Yu for their kind assistance, helpful advice and rigorous advocacy training. The team now advances to the Global Rounds in Washington DC, in which they will represent Hong Kong.

HKU Jessup Team crowned 2025 Hong Kong Overall Champion

(Left to right): Mr Thomas Lam (coach), Mr Fergus Tam (coach), Ally Chan, Veronica Yu, Chunghin Yue, Leo Pang

The HKU Jessup Team was declared the Hong Kong Overall Champion in the 2025 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition on 2 March 2025. The Jessup Moot is also known as one of the most prestigious international mooting competitions in the world. This year’s Jessup problem concerned the issues of jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, immunities of state officials, law of the sea and recognition of governments.

The Team consists of Ally Chan (PCLL), Leo Pang (PCLL), Chung Hin Yue (PCLL), and Veronica Yu (PCLL). In addition to the Champion title, the Team was awarded the Best Respondent Memorial Award and all Best Oralist awards, with Leo Pang, Chung Hin Yue, and Veronica Yu winning the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd 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, Ms Lisa Henderson KC, Ms Natalie So, Mr Ryan Cheung, Mr Raphael Leung, Mr Jason Louie, Mr Abdullah Bin Azhar, Mr Alex Chan, Mr Ambrose Yu, Ms Tiffany Ng, Ms Faith Lee, and Ms Holly Leung, for their kind assistance, helpful advice and rigorous advocacy training. The team now advances to the Global Rounds in Washington DC, in which they will represent Hong Kong.

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.

HKU Law Welcomes AIIFL Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Kuzi Charamba

Dr Kuzi Charamba joined as Post-Doctoral Fellow in FinTech, RegTech, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development, based in the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) in February 2021. Kuzi did his PhD / DCL and LLM at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and his LLB at Kings College London. He has taught a number of courses at McGill during his PhD / DCL studies, including winning McGill’s Teaching Tomorrow’s Professor Award. 

 He also has extensive research experience, in particular with the One Earth Future Foundation in Denver, Colorado, USA, as a Visiting Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado Law School, and research assistant to several leading professors at McGill. He has delivered papers and presentations in Thailand, Canada, the USA, the Dominican Republic, Spain and the Netherlands.

His first book Hired Guns and Human Rights had been published.

Principal Lecturer SK Lee Joins HKU Law in Teaching HK Legal System and the Rule of Law in a Globalizing World

HKU Law Welcomes the Principal Lecturer Ms SK Lee!
 
SK Lee

Biography

SK joined the Faculty of Law as a Principal Lecturer in 2021 and teaches Hong Kong legal system and the rule of law in a globalising world. She obtained her BA in Jurisprudence from the University of Oxford and her Master in International and Public Affairs (MIPA) from the University of Hong Kong. She is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and in Hong Kong.

Prior to joining the Faculty, she has worked in the public sector for over 20 years, serving in different areas within the Hong Kong SAR Government, including among others international law and international legal cooperation, human rights and constitutional development, and intellectual property. Her last position in the Government was Deputy Solicitor General (Policy Affairs), Department of Justice from March 2018 to February 2021.

Research Area

• Chinese Legal History
• Public International Law
• Public Law

HKU Law Welcomes the Chair of Comparative and International Law, Professor Alec Stone Sweet

HKU Law Welcomes Professor Alec Stone Sweet who joins the Department of Law as the Chair of Comparative and International Law, working in the fields of comparative and international politics, comparative and international law, international arbitration and human rights. 

     Prior to moving to HKU, Alec was the Saw Swee Hock Centennial Professorship at NUS, and held chaired professorships at the Yale Law School and Nuffield College, Oxford. He has also held visiting appointments at the Columbia Law School, as well as in universities in Aix-en-Provence, Bologna, Florence, Hong Kong, Leiden, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Sydney, and Vienna.

     Alec has published thirteen books, ten with Oxford University Press, including the most recent: Proportionality Balancing and Constitutional Governance: A Comparative and Global Approach (2019); A Cosmopolitan Legal Order: Kant, Constitutional Justice, and the European Convention on Human Rights (2018); and The Evolution of International Arbitration: Judicialization, Governance, Legitimacy (2017). His current book project is a comparative analysis of regional human rights courts. A regular contributor to assorted American law reviews, he has also published articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, the German Law Journal, the International Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of Global Constitutionalism, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Law and Courts, and West European Politics.

Research Area

• International Law and Politics
• Comparative Law and Politics
• International Arbitration
• Human Rights

Professional Law Books by HKU Faculty of Law

                       A list of Professional Law Books by HKU Faculty of Law has been showcased!

Congratulations to these PLE professional law book authors!

2021 HKU Legal and Political Theory Postgraduate Conference

The first joint postgraduate conference in Legal and Political Theory, co-organized by the Faculty of Law and the Department of Politics and Public Administration of the University of Hong Kong, successfully took place via Zoom on May 5, 6, and 7 2021. 

      On May 5th, the conference started with an inspiring talk by Professor Jonathan Wolff from the University of Oxford on 'The Point is to Change It', followed by 12 presentations by selected participants. The second day of the conference started with a wonderful talk by Dr Kieran Oberman from the University of Edinburgh on 'Immigration and the Hohfeldian Fallacy', followed by another 12 presentations by selected participants. The last day of the conference started with an information session by Chandran Kukathas from Singapore Management University on 'John Rawls and the Immigrant' , followed by 12 more presentations by selected participants.

     Over, the conference attracted over 70 applications from academics and students all over the world, including Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. 

New Books by HKU Faculty of Law 2020-2021

2020-2021 is a fruitful and prolific year.  More than 20 books were written by our HKU Faculty of Law legal scholars.   Congratulations to these new book authors!

New Book Celebrating 50th Anniversary of HKU Law (HKU Press)

A Special Standing in the World: The Faculty of Law at The University of Hong Kong 1969-2019

Christopher Munn

Hong Kong University Press

November 2019, 360 pp.

Description: The history of the Faculty of Law at HKU is in many ways the history of the law in modern Hong Kong. Founded in 1969, the Faculty has helped transform a colonial legal backwater into a flourishing jurisdiction, in which Hong Kong maintains its common law system as a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China. The Faculty has played a vital part in fostering a legal profession firmly rooted in Hong Kong, functioning in both Chinese and English. Its early teachers pioneered scholarship on Hong Kong law. Its graduates now make up over half of Hong Kong’s Judiciary and legal profession. Over the years the Faculty has earned worldwide recognition as a centre of research in subjects ranging from human rights to financial regulation.

     Published to mark the Golden Jubilee, this book traces the Faculty’s rise from humble origins to its position as one of the world’s leading law schools. Drawing on archives, publications and interviews, the book explores the growth of the Faculty against the momentous events of the past 50 years. The first two chapters examine the Faculty’s prehistory when, for over a hundred years, most of Hong Kong’s lawyers were trained in England. The remaining six chapters explore alternately the Faculty’s internal history and its role in building Hong Kong’s modern legal system.

About the Author: Christopher Munn is the author of Anglo-China: Chinese People and British Rule in Hong Kong, 1841–1880 (HKUP, 2008) and a co-editor of the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography (HKUP, 2012) and Meeting Place: Encounters across Cultures in Hong Kong, 1841–1984 (HKUP, 2017).

Reviews:

‘Dr Munn traces the Faculty of Law’s fascinating journey over half a century. From a modest beginning, it has developed into one of the finest law schools in the world. The story is told in the context of the historic events and momentous changes of this era. This illuminating and outstanding work deserves to be widely read.’ —The Hon. Andrew Li, First Chief Justice of the HKSAR (1997–2010) 

‘Christopher Munn’s history of the Faculty of Law is more than the history of a remarkable educational institution—it is a history of how the law and legal culture in Hong Kong developed from modest mid-nineteenth-century colonial beginnings to its present pre-eminent position. Clearly composed in lively prose, this book is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand modern Hong Kong and its place in the world today.’ —The Rt Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada (2000–2017)