Katherine Lynch on the Need for an Independent Children’s Commissioner in Hong Kong: A Good Governance Imperative (forthcoming journal article)

"The Need for an Independent Children’s Commissioner in Hong Kong: A Good Governance Imperative"

Katherine Lynch

Introduction: Hong Kong children face numerous health, welfare and safety concerns. Almost twenty percent of all children in Hong Kong live below the poverty line without adequate nutrition. Recent tragic child abuse cases highlight the urgent need for a more effective coordinated child protection system. There are high rates of school bullying and parental corporal punishment. Students suffer mental health issues related to academic, family and social pressures. These concerns highlight the need for a comprehensive and holistic approach to children’s health, welfare and protection in Hong Kong. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“UNCRC”) to which Hong Kong is a signatory obliges the Government to implement proper measures to respect children’s rights as enshrined in the Convention and to establish a national mechanism with a clear mandate to monitor children’s rights. A multi-disciplinary group of stakeholders including medical, legal, social work and education professionals, NGOs and community groups have urged the Government to establish an independent “Children’s Ombudsman” or “Commissioner” to advocate for Hong Kong children with power to investigate all complaints related to child rights and interests. There is also international pressure - the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (“UN Committee”) has repeatedly encouraged the Hong Kong Government to establish an independent Children’s Commissioner.

     The Chief Executive has made “good governance” a top Government priority stating in 2017: "Good governance is vital, whether in discharging the responsibilities of the Government as a 'service provider' or a 'regulator', or in taking up the new roles of the Government as a 'facilitator' and 'promoter'…”. Soon thereafter the Chief Executive announced the formal establishment of a new Hong Kong “Commission on Children” in May 2018 providing reason for cautious optimism. This article evaluates this new Commission and asks how the performance of the Commission as promoter of children’s rights and interests in Hong Kong can be improved? A discussion of challenges facing Hong Kong children – one of the main stakeholders of the Commission - provides important context for this evaluation. Thereafter, the rationale for establishing a Children’s Commissioner or Ombudsman as an aspect of good governance are discussed, along with the attributes they need to be effective. The Government’s historical approach to monitoring children’s rights and interests is then considered, along with comparative research on the approaches of Norway, UK and Australia relating to Children’s Commissioners. This provides a basis for analyzing the role and functions, composition and structure, policy and research focus and financial resources of the new Commission on Children. The Government’s decision to establish this Commission, while important, does not go far enough. To be effective, this Commission must evolve into an independent statutory body grounded in the UNCRC with enhanced powers of advocacy, investigation, monitoring and reporting. Swift reform is necessary to ensure the Commission adopts a rights-based systemic approach for improving advocacy and protection for children and develops the necessary credibility and high levels of public trust . This is an important human rights and good governance imperative for Hong Kong... Click here to download the full paper.

Katherine Lynch on Hong Kong’s Children’s Proceedings (Parental Responsibility) Bill: The Need for Further Reform and Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration (forthcoming journal article)

"Hong Kong’s Children’s Proceedings (Parental Responsibility) Bill: The Need for Further Reform and Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration"

Katherine Lynch

Canadian Journal of Family Law

forthcoming

Abstract: Many comprehensive reviews of family justice systems have been undertaken in common law jurisdictions over the past 20 years, all seeking to provide more meaningful affordable access to justice for families and children. Hong Kong is also under pressure to enact legislative reforms originally proposed in 2002-2005 which deal with children’s matters and more broadly, with family and matrimonial issues. Legislative reform was anticipated when the Government announced the long awaited Children’s Proceedings (Parental Responsibility) Bill (“Children’s Bill”) in 2015. After significant public consultation, however, the Government announced in 2018 that it would delay implementation of this draft legislation. Unfortunately, Hong Kong is still governed by an out-dated and confusing family law system that is failing its children and families. While family law reform remains stalled in Hong Kong, other jurisdictions are reviewing their family justice systems and have introduced new family laws. The federal Government of Canada and the province of Manitoba have recently enacted new family legislation. Singapore and the UK enacted family law reforms in 2014 with the UK now considering further extensive reforms. Scotland, Australia and New Zealand are all currently in the midst of comprehensive family justice reviews.

     This article evaluates the need to reform Hong Kong’s family justice system. Particular focus is on promoting children’s best interests, ensuring children’s voices are heard, providing support to high conflict families, addressing family violence issues and enhancing child support services. The provisions of the draft Children’s Bill are analysed and the current lack of comprehensive family justice reform discussed. The Government’s cautious approach to legislating doctrinal reform away from a “custody, care and control” and “access” approach to that of “parental responsibility” is reviewed. Suggestions for further revision are made, with reference to comparative models of legislative reform and best measures and practices. As in many jurisdictions, the challenge in Hong Kong is transforming the rhetoric of children’s participation into successful effective practice. Some Judiciary-led initiatives are discussed, along with “views of the child” reports and independent child advocates. The importance of providing multidisciplinary family support measures assisting children and families going through separation and divorce is considered. Finally, the creation of a formal independent “Hong Kong Family Justice Commission” is proposed to implement effective and timely family law reform and to help integrate more comprehensive multidisciplinary responses and services.

HKU Law Faculty Awarded Four KE Impact Project Awards 2017/18

The University of Hong Kong's Knowledge Exchange (KE) Funding Scheme for Impact Projects supports (A) 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 (B) 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 four awards in the 2017/18 round of funding, each in the amount of HK$100,000.  Congratulations to Dora Chan, Katherine Lynch, Anne Cheung and Richard Wu.  The details of their projects are described below:

Ms Dora Chan 
E-package of DIY Residential Tenancy Agreement 
The proposed project aims to provide the public community with a template residential tenancy agreement and a set of useful guidelines (including stamping and registration procedures) on how to enter into a valid residential tenancy agreement. Members of the public can then use and adapt the template to independently enter into a tenancy agreement for their residential homes, an important document that has a significant impact on their daily lives, without the costs and trouble of engaging a lawyer. The main objective is to provide free legal support to the community and to encourage knowledge exchange on tenancy matters. 

Ms Katherine Lynch 
Evaluation of the Children’s Issues Forums & Legal Reform of Child and Family Law & Policy in Hong Kong 
This project aims to collect evidence for corroboration and evaluation of impacts arising from the research and knowledge exchange project, “Children’s Issues Forums & Legal Reform of Child and Family Law in Hong Kong”, which created a multidisciplinary forum enhancing policy and legal reform for children’s issues in Hong Kong. The project will evaluate through quantitative and qualitative measures the impact of the project on increasing public awareness of children’s issues, changing legal policy on and creating pressure for law reform in Hong Kong’s child and family justice system. 

Professor Anne Cheung 
Hong Kong SAR Treaties e-Library 
The proposed project aims to provide free access to legal information for the public in Hong Kong by building a one-stop comprehensive and electronically searchable database of treaties and international agreements applied to the Hong Kong SAR in Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII). The key objective is to support the community and engage in knowledge exchange.

Dr Richard Wu 
Engaging Local School Teachers with Common Law Concepts and Values Through Experiential Learning 
This project is a pioneering interdisciplinary collaboration in common law education for local school teachers between academics from HKU Law and Social Science Faculties as well as academics from two other local universities. On basis of the project team members’ previous teaching and research projects on common law education for ‘non-law’ students and experiential learning in law, as well as teacher education, this project will engage local school teachers with common law concepts and values through experiential learning like case discussion, personal sharing by senior lawyers, and visual media . The project attempts to impact local school teachers by promoting their understanding of the common law system in Hong Kong and enhance their awareness of general common law concepts and specific common law values like justice and equality. 

New Book: Alternative Dispute Resolution: Hong Kong and International Perspectives (K Lynch & Ida Mak)

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Hong Kong and International Perspectives
Editors: Katherine Lynch and Ida Mak
2017, 287 pp.
Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong

Description: This Special Collection of University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law student research essays on alternative dispute resolution originates from the dispute resolution research and teaching curriculum in the HKU Faculty of Law. This inaugural collection presents undergraduate and postgraduate student research essays written on a variety of dispute resolution issues of relevance for Hong Kong and internationally. The aim of publishing this collection of student essays is to showcase excellent student research work in dispute resolution and to contribute to the developing body of research literature in Hong Kong on alternative forms of dispute resolution. It also seeks to contribute to knowledge sharing and knowledge exchange between Law Faculty students and the general public and broader community of Hong Kong – the aim is to encourage students to produce high quality research on important practical and policy issues for Hong Kong and then exchange and share this research through publication and law students as future academics, legal professionals and policy makers in Hong Kong with important research contributions to make to the community at large. This supports the University’s vision to produce distinguished graduates “committed to lifelong learning, and professionalism, capable of being responsive leaders and communicators in the field”.

Table of Contents

1. Development of dispute resolution curriculum at the University of Hong Kong … 1
Katherine Lynch

2. The hidden costs of alternative dispute resolution: why governments should be concerned about the privatization of justice … 15
Andrew Frobes

3. A comparative analysis of negotiation models … 35
Michael Ladovico Testori

4. A tailor-made prescription for family mediation in Hong Kong … 58
Crystal Chan Nim-Tung

5. MED-ARB: an Emerging Development in Hong Kong … 78
Pooja Shahani

6. One step further for our next generation: introducing victim-offender mediation to juvenile crimes in Hong Kong … 102
Sarah Law

7. Dispute review boards: emerging ADR process … 122
Josha Samuel Strub

8. Application of alternative dispute resolution in land use planning in Hong Kong … 142
Ava Tse Suk-Ying

9. The Hong Kong ombudsman: an Evaluation of its Contemporary role … 164
Chaminade Lam

10. Collaborative law and practice in medical-legal context … 192
Danny Lee Wai-Hung

11. New innovative dispute resolution mechanism for investor-state settlement: using MED-ARB to resolve investor-state disputes … 207
Ida Mak Kwan-Lun

12. Financial dispute resolution in Hong Kong … 225
Chan Man-yee

13. Third party funding, champerty and maintenance and arbitration … 244
Sean Hotung

14. The financial dispute resolution centre mediation scheme: Power imbalance in consumer financial services disputes … 261
Minos Lau Chun-Hin

Katherine Lynch on Multidisciplinary Cooperation in Child and Family Justice in Hong Kong (new book chapter)

"The Need for Multidisciplinary Cooperation in Child and Family Justice in Hong Kong"

Katherine Lynch

in Anne Scully-Hill, Sala Sihombing and Katherine Lynch (eds), Reforming Hong Kong's Child & Family Justice System (CUHK Press, 2016) ch 10.

Introduction: Hong Kong is facing significant pressure for meaningful reform of its child and family justice system to ensure that it serves the needs of Hong Kong children and families. The recent death of five-year old Yeung Chi-wai at home by ingestion of lethal amounts of crystal methamphetamine drugs (despite an earlier decision to remove him from his home) is but one tragic example of the deficiencies in Hong Kong’s child and family justice system. Speakers at a recent May 2016 meeting in Legislative Council highlighted the flaws in Hong Kong’s existing child protection system, including: outdated child protection laws, no legal duty to investigate cases of abuse or assess victims and make required provisions, lack of accountability and enforceability of the multidisciplinary case conference mechanism, lack of adequate social work resources and chronic shortages in residential homes and foster case for children in need.

     The sad death of Yeung Chi-wai emphasizes the pressing need for multidisciplinary collaboration and reform of Hong Kong’s child and family justice system and the introduction of new legislation that adequately protects children. Hong Kong’s Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li has also emphasized that the family system in Hong Kong must ensure that it is accessible, fair, efficient and provides a simpler modernized process for contested family and matrimonial cases. In May 2015 the Chief Justice’s Working Party accepted 136 proposals for procedural reform, including a single set of self-contained family justice procedural rules. More recently, in November 2016, Hong Kong’s Labour & Welfare Bureau in consultation with the Department of Justice, Home Affairs Bureau, Social Welfare Department (SWD), Judiciary and other relevant departments, prepared the long awaited draft “Children Proceedings (Parental Responsibility) Bill” (the Children’s Bill) for public consultation. 

     The public consultation for the Children’s Bill highlights the serious implementation gap that exists between the extensive ideas for reforming Hong Kong’s child and family justice laws and actual implementation of that change. Many Hong Kong Law Reform Reports have recommended significant substantive and procedural change but until the announcement of the Children’s Bill in November 2016 very little legislative reform has been implemented. These reform reports highlight that vulnerable children and families dealing with separation and divorce are not merely encountering legal problems with social elements but, rather, these are profound social problems with one or more legal elements. In order to improve the experience of children and families in this context, a broader multidisciplinary system must be established rather than focusing primarily on the formal justice system. While some multistakeholder approaches have been established in Hong Kong, for example, the establishment of the Family Council in 2007 and the Comprehensive Child Development Service in West Kowloon in 2005, more formal collaborative inter-departmental measures need to be introduced in Hong Kong. This chapter deals with the need to create formal systemic multi-disciplinary processes and structures with a broad approach to collaboration and consultation with Hong Kong’s child and family justice system and considers comparative approaches in the UK and Canada as possible reform models.

New Book: Reforming Hong Kong's Child & Family Justice System (CUHK Press)

Reforming Hong Kong's Child & Family Justice System
Editors: Anne Scully-Hill, Sala Sihombing and Katherine Lynch
Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
November 2016, 408 pp

Book Description: This book presents a collection of papers from the 3rd Children’s Issues Forum held in Hong Kong in November 2015 focusing on reform of Hong Kong’s child and family justice system by integrating legal, comparative and multi-disciplinary approaches. Distinguished local and overseas jurists, legal practitioners and academics offer insights and perspectives on a range of issues affecting children, including: commentary on the proposed introduction of a new Children’s Ordinance in Hong Kong; the endemic problem of children living in poverty in Hong Kong; the exclusion and marginalization suffered by children in Hong Kong society; improving access to justice for Hong Kong children and allowing their voices to be heard; promoting the concept of parenting responsibilities in place of custody; reforming children’s dispute resolution procedures to establish more collaborative less adversarial process options; the important role of research in nurturing children and youth; and the need for increased multidisciplinary and inter-agency cooperation and collaboration in child and family justice systems. Comparative perspectives on child centric family justice reforms and policy developments are offered from leading jurists from Australia, Canada, Singapore, Israel, Macau and China.

Launch of the Legal English in Hong Kong Website

Learning ‘legal English’, the specialized language that students encounter in law school, is particularly challenging. Law students must learn to use English forms and structures in such a way as to meet the expectations of members of the legal academic community, consistent with the conventions of the legal discipline. Learning legal English is therefore a process which involves elements of both legal expertise and language expertise. As a result, both lawyers and language teachers have something to contribute in order to support this learning process. This interdisciplinary project combines the expertise of lawyers and language teachers/applied linguists to develop a digital multimedia resource for legal English based on an analysis of the language needs of Hong Kong law students. This resource will target the most common tasks and genres for law students, e.g. essays, legal problem questions, memoranda, dissertations, oral mooting, and provide input in two forms: 1) edited video interviews with legal experts providing advice on legal writing and legal argument; 2) task-based activities created by applied linguists providing language-focused extensions on experts’ observations.

      The aims of the project are three-fold:

1. To provide an in-depth analysis of the English language needs of Hong Kong law students; 
2. To develop video-based teaching materials to target these needs, including expert videos, language-focused activities and resources; 
3. To promote the use of these language-focused materials by law professors in legal skills and content courses.

The team members are Christoph Hafner, John Burke, Katherine Lynch, Anne Scully-Hill and Rajesh Sharma.  For a sample of one of the instructional video for students, see below.  The new website can be accessed here.

Katherine Lynch on Children's Dispute Resolution in Hong Kong (Cardozo J Conflict Resln)

"Reform of Family Justice: Children's Dispute Resolution in Hong Kong"
Katherine Lynch
Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution
Spring 2016, Vol. 17, Issue 3, pp. 909-936

The last twenty years have witnessed a transformation of family justice systems across the common law world, featuring particular emphasis on ensuring that the best interests of children are protected when resolving family disputes. The evolving paradigm has shifted away from resolving family disputes in formal courtrooms via a litigious process that is viewed as lengthy, slow, complex, expensive, and far too adversarial, particularly when children are involved. In response to these challenges, many family procedural reforms, such as modifying court rules to accommodate more informal and flexible processes and expanding judicial roles to provide greater case management and settlement facilitation, have been introduced within the global common law community. More non-adversarial approaches to dispute resolution have developed, with increased use of informal out-of-court dispute resolution--processes often referred to collectively as "alternative dispute resolution" or "ADR" processes. Increasingly, disputes involving children are being handled through more informal, non-adversarial processes like mediation and collaborative practice. Prevention and early resolution of disputes are said to reduce the detrimental effect of conflict on children. The need to protect the best interests of children is now an important feature of family justice reform. The central focus is on providing better, more effective ways of determining what is in the children's best interests and providing children with the opportunity to be heard and to participate in proceedings affecting them - either directly or through a representative... Click here to download the full article.

HKU Teaching Excellence Awards 2015 - Law Faculty Wins Three Awards

Congratulations to Rick Glofcheski, Katherine Lynch and Marco Wan for winning University level teaching awards for 2015.  Here is an excerpt from the President, Professor Peter Mathieson's announcement:

"The Selection Panel was deeply impressed with the awardees’ dedication to teaching, their tireless and creative efforts to make learning enjoyable and challenging, and the impact that they have made on their students’ learning. Because of the eminent achievements of two candidates for the University Distinguished Teaching Award, the Panel decided unanimously to honour both of them. 

University Distinguished Teaching Award
Professor Joseph C.W. Chan, Department of Politics and Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Rick A. Glofcheski, Department of Law, Faculty of Law [**Watch the video below demonstrating how Prof Glofcheski he has used the 'flipped classroom' method to advance teaching and learning at HKU. Click here to see and read more.]

Outstanding Teaching Award
Dr. Chun-kit Chui, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering
Ms. Katherine L. Lynch, Department of Law, Faculty of Law
Dr. Julian A. Tanner, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
Miss Nicole J. Tavares, Faculty of Education
Dr. Marco M.H. Wan, Department of Law, Faculty of Law 

Teaching Innovation Award
Dr. Michael G. Botelho, Faculty of Dentistry

The awardees will be honoured at a presentation ceremony on Monday May 9, 2016. Please do join us for that if you can. Their names will be posted on the Teaching Excellence Awards Honour Board."

At the Faculty level earlier this year, the following three colleagues were awarded Faculty of Law Outstanding Teaching Awards by the Dean in February 2016:

1. Dora Chan, Principal Lecturer, Department of Law

Dora is an exemplary teacher. She has helped junior-year students overcome the daunting task of acquiring legal skills that are crucial to their future success as a lawyer, designed a postgraduate JD course that suits the needs of the students, and taken up the shepherding role of Deputy Head (Student Affairs) in the Department of Law. 

2. Chen Jianlin, Assistant Professor, Department of Law

Jianlin is a dedicated, enthusiastic and gifted teacher. He has designed new courses and used innovative teaching methodology in his teaching. He has also taken the initiative to organize seminars and workshops to promote research and presentation skills among undergraduate and postgraduate students.

3. Nigel Davis, Principal Lecturer, Department of Professional Legal Education

Nigel is one of the e-learning pioneers in the Department of Professional Legal Education. As a member of two e-learning committees, he has reviewed and promoted e-learning initiatives including MOOCs. He has also designed and implemented a new elective for the Postgraduate Certificate in Laws.

Report on Third Hong Kong Children's Issues Forum (Collaborative KE Project)

COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE: THIRD CHILDREN’S ISSUES FORUM

On November 13 and 14 the HKU Faculty of Law co-hosted the Third Children’s Issues Forum in collaboration with the Chinese University Faculty of Law, the Hong Kong Family Law Association, and the Law Society of Hong Kong (with support from the Hong Kong Bar Association). The purpose of this Forum (and the previous two) was to highlight the legal and related issues affecting children in Hong Kong and globally and to advocate for multidisciplinary reform of the law and policy on children and family justice generally. After a welcome from the Deans of the CUHK and HKU Law Faculties, Prof. Chris Gane and Prof. Michael Hor, The Hon. Chief Justice Mr. Geoffrey Ma Tao-li opened the Forum noting the importance of protecting the best interests of children, and the role of law in doing so, especially as they are often amongst the most vulnerable in our society.

     During the course of the Third Forum held at CUHK, a packed conference hall heard over 40 speakers address child related topics as diverse as child custody, the Family Court’s innovative Children Dispute Resolution procedure, perspectives on representing children in legal proceedings, frontline workers’ experiences of addressing children’s issues and the need for accurate and sustained data collection to inform the creation and implementation of effective policies on children’s issues.

     Speakers from Hong Kong included members of the Judiciary, barristers and solicitors, medical professionals, academics and also social workers, therapists and representatives from NGOs. Importantly for a conference on children’s issues, young people form Kids’ Dream, one of the first children-led NGOs in Hong Kong, also took part in various panels during the Forum. 

     Speakers from overseas included senior judiciary from England, Australia, Singapore, Macau and Canada; lawyers from the UK and the PRC; academics from Japan, Singapore, Norway and Israel; and the Asia regional representative of UNICEF. For more information on the programme and speakers, please go to www.cifhk.org.

     During the first panel of the Forum, the Secretary for Labour & Welfare, Mr. Matthew Cheung GBS JP announced - for the first time in public - the imminent publication of the long awaited Children’s Bill and the government’s commitment to set aside resources to ensure the successful implementation of the practical infrastructure necessary to support the legislative changes, for example, supervised contact centres. Mr. Cheung confirmed that the Children’s Bill will be released by the end of November. This reform is something which has been discussed and advocated at the previous two Children’s Issues Forums in 2009 and 2012 and so we were delighted that the Secretary chose to make this announcement at the Third Children’s Issues Forum in the presence of the HK media.

     We look forward now to receiving the Children’s Bill and to continuing the progress towards legislative and practical reforms, particularly the creation of a Children’s Commission, to ensure that Hong Kong children have the best child law possible.  Written by Katherine Lynch.

New Books: International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection (2 Volumes)

International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection Collected Essays on Parental Responsibility and Children’s Dispute Resolution (Vol.1)
Edited by Katherine Lynch and Anne Scully-Hill
Chinese University Press
2015/11, 248 pp.

Description: The essays in Volume 1 focus on the substantive law relating to the child-parent relationship in terms of custody and access and on procedural frameworks adopted around the world to resolve disputes arising between parents in relation to their children. The first group of essays offers a comparative analysis of the paradigm shift occurring in post-divorce child law away from notions of custody, care and control to that based on “parental responsibility” in diverse jurisdictions such as England, Hong Kong, New Zealand, China and Europe. In the second section, essays focus on the procedural framework within which disputes relating to parenting and care of children post-divorce may be resolved, with particular focus on the development of specialized children’s dispute resolution procedures in various jurisdictions. The final essays highlight the progressive work of the Hong Kong Judiciary in introducing many procedural reforms in family law and children’s dispute resolution (with many involving a greater use of ADR processes), but also lament the lack of legislative reform in family justice. Volume 1 concludes by focusing on the need for greater empirical research and collection of data to allow for better evidence-based and informed policy making in family justice and child law reform in Hong Kong.

International Perspectives on Disputes about Children and Child Protection Collected Essays on Preventing Abuse, Parental Responsibilities and Empowering Children (Vol.2) 

Edited by Katherine Lynch and Anne Scully-Hill

Chinese University Press

2015/11, 236 pp.

Description: The essays in Volume 2 provide insights on the serious problems of child abuse and child sex trafficking in Hong Kong and internationally and focus on the need for effective child advocacy and protection. The first group of essays discuss the incidence and prevention of child abuse and child sex trafficking and highlight the urgent need for more empirical research and quantitative data to gauge the real extent of child abuse and to help calculate the huge financial costs of child maltreatment to society. The need for a coordinated multi-disciplinary community based approach to preventing and treating child victims of abuse and sex trafficking is discussed. The consequences of emotional abuse of children in high conflict separation and parental alienation cases are also considered. The essays in the second section focus on parental responsibilities, empowering children and effective child advocacy. The inappropriateness of a “rights based” discourse for matters of parents and children is analyzed, stressing the new paradigm for parent child relationships reframed as “parental responsibilities”. Allowing children to express themselves and to directly participate in proceedings involving them is discussed. Volume 2 concludes by focusing on the need for effective child advocacy and policy formulation through the appointment of independent Children’s Commissioner in Hong Kong.

     Click here to view the table of contents from both books.  To follow the impact of the Children's Issues Forum, click here.

$1.1M in New Small Project Research Funding

Congratulations to the Faculty members who were awarded HKU Small Project Research Grants up to $80,000 each. The projects cover a wide range of topics and are listed as follows (in no particular order):

1. Competition Law Enforcement against Abuses of Market Power in Hong Kong (36 months), Kelvin Kwok

2. Fiduciary Obligations: Justifying and Limiting Loyalty (24 months), Rebecca Lee

3. Reforming Anti-Dilution Law in China (24 months), Haochen Sun

4. Path Dependence and Interconnected Institutions: Implications for Legal Transplantation (24 months), Guanghua Yu

5. Implications of the New Round of Legal and Market Reform in China (30 months), Xian Chu Zhang

6. Eastern Values in International Arbitration: An Initial Exploration (36 months), Shahla Ali

7. Exercise of Legislative Power by the Executive (36 months), Jianlin Chen

8. A Comparative Legal Study on Tackling Cyberbullying and Protecting Children's Rights (24 months), Anne Cheung

9. Financial Planning for Mental Incapacity: A Tale of Two Confucian Cities (24 months), Lusina Ho

10. Survey of Public Opinion Toward Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in Hong Kong (24 months), Kelley Loper

11. Minority Shareholder Remedes in Hong Kong: Evolving Dispute Resolution Approaches (24 months), Katherine Lynch

12. The Interrelation between Case Law and Legislation in Aspects of Commercial Law (36 months), Ji Lian Yap

13. A statistical study of Constitutional and Administrative Law judgments from 1997 - 2012 (24 months), Antonio Da Roza

14. The Tightening of Transparency Requirements in the International Tax Regime and its Impact on Mainland China and Hong Kong (15 months), Doreen Qiu

15. Freedom of information and privacy protection in China: resolving conflicts and promoting accountability (18 months), Clement Chen

16. The Delicate Art of Med-Arb and Its Future Institutionalisation in China (18 months), Weixia Gu.