Professor Marco Wan elected as Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities

Congratulations to Professor Marco Wan, who has been elected as a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities. The Academy honors the most distinguished scholars and practitioners of the humanities in Hong Kong, nurtures promising early-to-mid-career academics, and plays a major role in advancing the humanities. Professor Wan is the first legal scholar to be elected to the Academy.

Professor Wan’s research focuses on the intersections between law and the humanities — especially literature, film, and the visual arts — as well as constitutional law and legal theory. He is the author of Film and Constitutional Controversy (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and Masculinity and the Trials of Modern Fiction (Routledge, 2017; winner of the biennial Penny Pether Prize from the Law, Literature, and Humanities Association of Australasia). His recent work explores how the arts engage with ideas about rights and justice in a global context; a special issue on world literature and law, which he is co-editing with Professor Peter Goodrich, is forthcoming in Law & Literature later this year.

The list of Fellows of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities is available here.

Marco Wan comments on the case of Sham Tsz-kit v. Secretary for Justice on Deutsche Welle news

In a television interview with Deutsche Welle (DW) news, Marco Wan, shares the recent development of the legal framework for recognizing the existence and rights of same-sex couples in Hong Kong after the judgement of Sham Tsz-kit v. Secretary for Justice decided on 5 September 2023. He identifies and comments on the unique challenges on legalizing or offering legal recognition to same-sex marriage in Hong Kong. He also illustrates the major concerns from the LGBTQ+ Community on the degree of protection to same-sex couples in Hong Kong to be introduced by the Government's new framework. Click here to view the interview (in English) on YouTube.

Marco Wan on Law, Film, and Trans Identity in Hong Kong (International Journal of Constitutional Law)

"Law, film, and trans identity in Hong Kong"

Marco Wan

International Journal of Constitutional Law, Volume 21, Issue 2

Published: 01 June 2023

Abstract: This article examines the construction of trans identity in Hong Kong law and cinema. By juxtaposing the key Hong Kong court cases on trans rights and some recent feature films on trans experience, it argues that film can reproduce and reinforce the understanding of identity in the court cases, and that they can unwittingly perpetuate the dynamic of exclusion enacted in those cases. Law and popular film may seem to be distinct discursive domains, but their constructions of trans identity are in fact intertwined. The article contends that to break out of these limiting identity formulations, we need to move beyond the dominant imaginaries of law and popular culture. It offers one way of doing so by turning to independent queer filmmaking as a forum for articulating and recognizing alternative trans subjectivities.

Professor Marco Wan Speaks on Marriage Equality and Trans Rights at HSBC and Morgan Stanley

Professor Marco Wan spoke at HSBC and Morgan Stanley to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT) and Pride Month. At HSBC, Professor Wan analyzed the key court cases and changing landscape of marriage equality in Hong Kong. At Morgan Stanley, he discussed the major developments and future trajectories of trans rights in the city.

     Professor Wan also serves as a curator for the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. His latest article, ‘Law, Film, and Trans Identity in Hong Kong’, was recently published in the International Journal of Constitutional Law (I.CON) this summer.

Marco Wan on Queer Temporalities and Transgender Rights: A Hong Kong Case Study (Social & Legal Studies)

"Queer Temporalities and Transgender Rights: A Hong Kong Case Study" 
Marco Wan 
Social & Legal Studies An International Journal

First Published: 2020-8-27
Abstract: This article investigates how theoretical explorations of queer time can shed light on our understanding of law. Taking transgender rights in Hong Kong as a case study, it argues that legal judgments can entrench normative temporal structures and impose tropes such as linearity, futurity, and finality onto the life scripts of trans subjects. Through close readings of the Court of Final Appeal decision in W v. Registrar of Marriages and the recent judicial review challenges that have emerged in its aftermath, it demonstrates how the cases exclude transqueer individuals who do not fit into those temporal trajectories from the realm of rights protection. It also suggests ways of thinking about the temporalities of transgender issues differently. The analysis here stages an encounter between law and literary/cultural theory, and provides a new perspective on the current state of transgender rights in Hong Kong.

New Book: Film and Constitutional Controversy: Visualizing Hong Kong Identity in the Age of 'One Country, Two Systems' (Marco Wan)

Film and Constitutional Controversy: Visualizing Hong Kong Identity in the Age of 'One Country, Two Systems'
Marco Wan

Published in February 2021

Cambridge University Press

300 pp.

Book description: In modern-day Hong Kong, major constitutional controversies have caused people to demonstrate on the streets, immigrate to other countries, occupy major thoroughfares, and even engage in violence. These controversies have such great resonance because they put pressure on a cultural identity made possible by, and inseparable from, the 'One Country, Two Systems' framework. Hong Kong is also a city synonymous with film, ranging from commercial gangster movies to the art cinema of Wong Kar-wai. This book argues that while the importance of constitutional controversies for the process of self-formation may not be readily discernible in court judgments and legislative enactments, it is registered in the diverse modes of expression found in Hong Kong cinema. It contends that film gives form to the ways in which Hong Kong identity is articulated, placed under stress, bolstered, and transformed in light of disputes about the nature and meaning of the city's constitutional documents.

Reviews: 

‘Few books I know of interweave cinema and law as intelligently as Film and Constitutional Controversy in elucidating Hong Kong's post-1997 identity crisis. For anyone concerned with contemporary Hong Kong, China, and the wide-ranging legacies of British colonialism, Marco Wan's informative, judicious account is a must-read. It has so much to tell us about the practical conundrums, allegorical fantasies, and popular affects stemming from this singular historical situation.'

     Rey Chow - Anne Firor Scott Professor of Literature, Duke University

‘Marco Wan's Film and Constitutional Controversy is a fascinating contribution that makes creative use of the nexus between film, culture, and law to trace Hong Kong's unique historical trajectory. At the same time, Wan draws on Hong Kong's singular relationship to the rule of law to offer fresh insights into how film and law can be mutually illuminating.'

     Michel Rosenfeld - University Professor of Law and Comparative Democracy, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

 

Marco Wan on Queer Temporalities and Transgender Rights: A Hong Kong Case Study (Social & Legal Studies)

"Queer Temporalities and Transgender Rights: A Hong Kong Case Study"

Marco Wan

Social & Legal Studies

Published online in August 2020

Abstract: This article investigates how theoretical explorations of queer time can shed light on our understanding of law. Taking transgender rights in Hong Kong as a case study, it argues that legal judgments can entrench normative temporal structures and impose tropes such as linearity, futurity, and finality onto the life scripts of trans subjects. Through close readings of the Court of Final Appeal decision in W v. Registrar of Marriages and the recent judicial review challenges that have emerged in its aftermath, it demonstrates how the cases exclude transqueer individuals who do not fit into those temporal trajectories from the realm of rights protection. It also suggests ways of thinking about the temporalities of transgender issues differently. The analysis here stages an encounter between law and literary/cultural theory, and provides a new perspective on the current state of transgender rights in Hong Kong.

HKU Law Teachers Recognised by Teaching Excellence Awards 2019

Six HKU Law teachers were recognised in the 2019 HKU Teaching Excellence Awards for individual and group efforts.  

    Congratulations to the following colleagues:

• Ms Alice Lee who won the University Distinguished Teaching Excellence Award. Alice has been teaching and researching copyright law for more than 20 years. She has obtained nine Teaching Development Grants and one KE grant, and received three university-level teaching awards including the University Distinguished Teaching Award 2019. She promotes and facilitates Teaching & Learning initiatives as Associate Dean (Academic Affairs) of the Law Faculty, as Chair of the University Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme, and as a Senior Fellow and an accredited mentor of the UK Higher Education Academy. Her most recent work is the project on 'the Copyright Classroom'. The copyright education videos, tailor-made for the tertiary, secondary and primary education sectors, are disseminated through https://hku.to/Copyright_Classroom “The Copyright Classroom – HKU” channel as well as Ms Lee’s education website www.law.hku.hk/collab.

• Ms. Julienne Jen who won the individual Outstanding Teaching Award. Julienne received the Faculty’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2015 and is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Julienne is interested in exploring different methods of experiential learning in her teaching and she now practises as a solicitor, offering pro bono legal advice at the University’s Clinical Legal Education course. She has co-authored various articles and spoken in conferences concerning professional legal education and experiential learning. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Hong Kong Lawyer magazine. In addition, she contributes regularly to the LexisNexis Practical Guidance series and the Current Service of the Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong.

• Team award: Professor Janny H.C. Leung (Leader) of the Faculty of Arts, Dr Marco Wan of the Faculty of Law, Dr Daniel Matthews of the Faculty of Law and Dr Anya Adair of the Faculties of Arts and Law for BA & LLB Programme Curriculum. This joint programme in Arts and Law offers an exciting double degree combining the critical and communication skills offered by a world-leading literary studies programme with comprehensive training in the law. This selective programme uniquely allows students to gain two degrees in a single five-year course of study: a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.

• Ms. Daisy Cheung who won the Early Career Teaching Award. Daisy is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Medical Ethics & Law and currently co-teaches Medico-Legal Issues for the LLB and JD/LLM programs, as well as tort and contract law.

The Teaching Excellence Awards Scheme (TEAS) aims to recognise, reward and promote excellence in teaching at the University. Under the Scheme, there are four categories of awards, viz. University Distinguished Teaching Award, Outstanding Teaching Award (OTA), Early Career Teaching Award (ECTA) and Teaching Innovation Award (TIA). Besides individual awards, both OTA and TIA comprise team awards to recognise and encourage collaborative effort and achievement in enhancing teaching and learning. All Faculties are encouraged to nominate colleagues who have made outstanding teaching and learning contributions for these awards. For ECTA, in particular, we hope to receive at least one nomination from each Faculty. Click here to view the list of 2019 TEAS Winners.

HKU Law Begins 2020/21 with $12 Million in New Competitive Research Funding

Congratulations to our 8 colleagues who were successful in their research funding applications this year in competitive exercises conducted by external funding bodies.

RGC Senior Research Fellowship 2020/21

Professor Douglas Arner was awarded an inaugural RGC Senior Research Fellowship by the Research Grants Council.  This fellowship in the amount of $7,798,380 enables Professor Arner to deepen his research on "Digital Finance, Financial Inclusion and Sustainability: Building Better Financial Systems" over the next five years.  This fellowship builds on the RGC Research Impact Fund award Professor Arner obtained in the 2018/19 exercise.

Public Policy Research Funding Scheme 2020/21

Ms Amanda Whitfort was awarded a Public Policy Research (PPR) grant from the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office in the amount of $462,019.  She will conduct "An Empirical Study of the Nature of Animal Abuse Cases in Hong Kong from 2013-2019" over the next 12 months.  Ms Whitfort's 2008 PPR project, "Review of animal welfare legislation in Hong Kong", produced an influential policy report that improved the welfare of pets and animals in Hong Kong by triggering impactful legislative and policy reforms.

RGC General Research Fund 2020/21

Six colleagues were awarded General Research Fund (GRF) grants by the Research Grants Council in the 2020/21 round. The GRF success rate was 40%, compared to last year's 31%. The projects cover a range of legal topics of importance to Hong Kong, China and beyond. The details of the new funded projects are as follows:

Dr Clement Chen, Accountability in Algorithm-assisted Sanctions: Public Law Scrutiny of China’s Social Credit System, $705,920

Prof Frank He Xin, The Personal Safety Protection Order against Domestic Violence in China, $924,000

Prof Lusina Ho, A Comprehensive Examination of Judicial Practice on the Chinese Trust Law, $650,064

Ms Rebecca Lee, Rebuilding Trust and Legitimacy for Charities in Hong Kong, $375,000

Dr Michael Ng, Liberating Hong Kong: The awakening of freedom of expression and the rule of law in British Hong Kong (1978-1997), $591,400

Dr Marco Wan, The Construction of Sexual Minority Identities in Legal and Political Discourse in Hong Kong, $585,080

Jose Duke Bagulaya on a People’s Reading of the ASEAN Charter (Asian J of Law & Society)

"The Authors Do Not Speak: A People’s Reading of the ASEAN Charter"

Jose Duke Bagulaya (PhD candidate)

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 
June 2020, Volume 6, Issue 2, pp.229-247

Abstract: While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter has been read by commentators as a constitutional document, its use of the peoples of Southeast Asia as fictional authors of the text has not been fully explored. A people’s reading of the ASEAN Charter provides a critical perspective that uncovers the elitist and statist nature of this document. A close textual analysis of the preamble reveals that these purported authors are displaced by the Heads of State as the speaking subject and creators of the new legal entity. This textual displacement transforms the constituent treaty into a state monologue as it imposes a utopian vision of capitalism on the geopolitical body of the region. Contrary to its democratic claims, the Charter has only constitutionalised reification, class structures, and the exclusion of the peoples from power. The ASEAN constitution silences its own authors.

Marco Wan on Same-sex Marriage in the Context of Hong Kong (JP Morgan Webinar)

Marco Wan spoke on the timely and important issue of same-sex marriage at a recent webinar at the Hong Kong office of the US investment bank JP Morgan on 24 June 2020. His presentation gave an update of the recent cases in Hong Kong, including QT, Leung Chun Kwong, Infinger, and MK, and also explored international developments. The talk further explored Hong Kong's marriage history as a way of thinking about the twenty-first century debate about marriage equality; this part of the talk drew on his forthcoming article entitled "The Invention of Tradition: Same-sex Marriage and its Discontents in Hong Kong". The talk concluded by noting the need not only to focus on marriage, but on other issues central to sexual minority rights such as employment discrimination. 

​

New Book: Law and New Media: West of Everything (Edinburgh University Press)

Law and New Media: West of Everything
Edited by Christian Delage, Peter Goodrich, Marco Wan
Edinburgh University Press

May 2019, 280 pp.

Description: In this volume, international specialists from new and established domains of law, media, film and virtual studies address the emergence of the jurist in the era of digital transmission. Examining the jurisprudence of new visual technologies – from the cinema of the early twentieth century to the social media of our own time – this volume explores the multiple intersections of these visual technologies and the law from the theoretical insight they generate to the nature of law to the impact they have on doctrinal development.

     Part One tracks the media, the technologies and apparatuses of modern law. It looks specifically at the acoustics of architecture, emblematic texts, films of trials, the prohibition of cameras in courtrooms and the rules of contempt, televised reporting of law, and the multiple fora and chat rooms of Facebook, vblogs, #hashtag law and the mobile-optimised web. Part Two examines the jurisprudential questions raised by new visual and virtual reality technologies of the 21st century. Will social media lead to social law? The force of legal remediation? Virtual courts and online judges? Paperless trials? Electronic discovery? All of these developments impact how we conceive of the practice of law.

Key Features

• Includes an international range of contributions and coverage, from the United States and Europe to the Middle East and China
• Presents a firm historical foundation for considering the connections between law and new forms of media
• Includes a range of contributions from established scholars and promising new voices in the field
• Examines a wide range of new media, from online platforms to virtual reality.

Contributors

Michele Castaneda, Brown University; Emanuele Coccia, EHSS Paris; Christian Delage, Université Paris 8 & Director of IHTP; Claire Demoulin, Université Paris 8 & IHTP; Daniela Gandorfer, Princeton University; Peter Goodrich, Cardozo Law and NYU Abu Dhabi; Thibaud Guichard, Université Paris 8; Christopher Hutton, University of Hong Kong; William MacNeil, Southern Cross University; Antoine Rocipon, Université Paris 8 & IHTP; Raja Sakrani, University of Bonn; Laurent de Sutter, University of Brussels; Marco Wan, University of Hong Kong

Marco Wan on The Invention of Tradition: Same-Sex Marriage and Its Discontents in Hong Kong (Int'l J Const L)

"The Invention of Tradition: Same-Sex Marriage and Its Discontents in Hong Kong"

Marco Wan

International Journal of Constitutional Law

July 2020, Volume 18, Issue 2, pp 539-562

Abstract: In Leung Chun Kwong v. Secretary for the Civil Service, the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal held that the government unlawfully discriminated against a gay civil servant by refusing to recognize his same-sex marriage—entered into abroad—when considering the granting of local spousal benefits and joint tax assessment. The year before, in QT v. Director of Immigration, the court had ruled against the government for denying the partner of a British lesbian a dependant visa on the basis of her sexual orientation. QT and Leung Chun Kwong are landmarks in the rapidly evolving jurisprudence on same-sex marriage in the territory. This article presents an analysis of the Hong Kong cases relating to gay rights and same-sex marriage. It contends that, even though the need to protect traditional marriage is cited as a reason against marriage equality in many jurisdictions, the claim is particularly problematic in Hong Kong, given the city’s unique marriage history. It draws on the historian Eric Hobsbawm’s notion of “the invention of tradition” to argue that the rhetoric of traditional marriage conjures up an imagined past that displaces a vast and varied set of long-standing marital practices. By exploring government reports and records pertaining to Chinese marriages in colonial Hong Kong, this article then examines these forgotten traditions and demonstrates their significance for understanding the marriage equality debate in the territory in our own time.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Part 2 of 2018)

HONG KONG LAW JOURNAL

Vol. 48, Part 2 of 2018

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Comment
Spouses without Benefits: “Ring-Fencing” Marriage after W and QT Have Unbolted Its Gates? Po Jen Yap   365
Analysis
Undue Influence: Inspirations from Australia? THORNE V KENNEDY Jason Fee   375
Judicial Rectification of the Constitution: Can Singapore Courts Be “Mini-Legislatures”? Po Jen Yap and Benjamin Joshua Ong   389
Articles
Enforcing an Unfortunate, Unnecessary and “Unquestionably Binding” NPCSC Interpretation: The Hong Kong Judiciary’s Deconstruction of Its Construction of the Basic Law PY Lo   399
Law-Oriented Lawyering vs Political Lawyering: A Comparative Study of China, Taiwan and South Korea Han Zhu   431
Mental Health Law in Hong Kong: The Civil Context Daisy Cheung   461
Regulation of Controlling Shareholder Misconduct in Listed Companies: A Comparison of Hong Kong and Delaware Shen Junzheng   485
Adverse Possession, Default Judgment and the Disappeared Owner Malcolm Merry   511
How Chocolate Wars “Shape” the Law: KitKat, Three-Dimensional Trade Marks and the Enigma of “Technical Function” Eugene C Lim   533
Capital Gains Tax with Hong Kong Characteristics: Desirability, Feasibility and Design  Jingyi Wangand Wilson Chow   555
Money Laundering and Distributed Ledger Technology in Hong Kong Andrew Tsang   577
Sexual Orientation and the Historiography of Marriage in Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for the Civil Service Marco Wan   605
Ideas for Development of Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities: Active Space Debris Removal Jie Long   623
Chinese Law
Late Qing Intellectuals’ Discussions on Chinese Competence for Constitutionalism (1902–1911) Junnan Lai   653
The Eligibility of Claimants to Commence Derivative Litigation on Behalf of China’s Joint Stock Limited Companies Jingchen Zhao and Shuangge Wen   687
Understanding Who Has an Insurable Interest in Goods under Multimodal Transport in Chinese Law Mingzhao Zhang and Ling Zhu   739
Criminalisation of Ship-Source Marine Pollution under Chinese Law: A Critical Analysis Pumin Rong   763
Book review
Maritime Law and Practice in China, Liang Zhao and Lianjun Li Anselmo Reyes   783

Click here to read the abstracts of each article. Hong Kong Law Journal is published by Sweet & Maxwell. Full text is available on Westlaw.

Marco Wan on Sexual Orientation and the Historiography of Marriage in Hong Kong (HKLJ)

"Sexual Orientation and the Historiography of Marriage in Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for the Civil Service"
Marco Wan
Hong Kong Law Journal
Vol. 48, Part 2 of 2018, pp 605-622

Abstract:  This article critically examines the Court of Appeal’s historiography of marriage in Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for the Civil Service. In this case, the court held that the government was right not to recognise the litigant’s overseas same sex marriage for the purposes of granting spousal benefits or allowing joint tax assessment locally. Two main assumptions underpin the court’s reasoning. First, the institution of marriage in Hong Kong is based on a history or tradition specific to the territory, such that the continuing international movement towards the recognition or legalisation of same-sex marriage is largely irrelevant to the territory. Second, prevailing societal views about marriage are coterminous with such history or tradition. This article argues that while the Court of Appeal’s judgment rightly underscores the uniqueness of Hong Kong’s marriage history, it remains wedded to an ahistorical understanding of the local marriage system. This article then presents a survey of marriage traditions that existed for most of the territory’s past and posits that a more nuanced understanding of local history actually supports, rather than undermines, Leung Chun Kwong’s case.

Marco Wan on Feminist Literary Theory and US Sex Equality Cases (Feminist Legal Studies)

"Feminist Literary Theory and the Law: Reading Cases with Naomi Schor"
Marco Wan
Feminist Legal Studies
July 2018, Volume 26, Issue 2, pp 163–183

Abstract: This article brings together feminist literary theory and law by approaching a number of U.S. Federal cases on sex equality in light of the work of the renowned feminist literary critic Naomi Schor, and shows that literary theory constitutes an under-explored resource for feminist legal critique. Schor’s writings constitute a sustained rumination on the relationship between reading and feminism. Drawing on writings on language and the body by key French feminist theorists, Schor advances a method of interpretation which she terms, provocatively, ‘clitoral reading’, and which focuses on the place of details relating to women’s bodies and desires within literary and cultural discourses. In the course of her career, she analysed texts from domains as diverse as literature, philosophy, visual art, the history of fashion, and photography. I will demonstrate that her work can make a valuable contribution to legal studies by using it as an interpretative lens to re-examine U.S. Federal court judgments.

Marco Wan on Hong Kong's Unique Traditions of Marriage and the Same-Sex Civil Servant's Case (SCMP)

"Gay marriage would be more at home among Hong Kong's traditions than court suggests"

Marco Wan

South China Morning Post

7 June 2018

In the latest twist in the saga of same-sex unions in Hong Kong, the Court of Appeal ruled against Angus Leung Chun-kwong, the gay civil servant who asked the government not to discriminate against him by granting him and his male partner, whom he married abroad, spousal benefits, and allowing them to file their taxes jointly. The court notes that Leung’s claims were inconsistent with the local culture, history and tradition upon which the contemporary understanding of marriage is built.

     However, a closer look at Hong Kong’s unique traditions of marriage suggests that these traditions actually support Leung’s case. Decades of gay rights litigation have taught us that the past that gets evoked to resist change is often more imaginary than real, and any use of it, whether by courts, politicians or activists, should be scrutinised.

    In ruling against Leung, the court underscores that Hong Kong’s prevailing socio-moral values militate against any official recognition of his marriage. Crucially, it emphasises that such societal views are primary considerations for both the court and the government because they are derived from long-standing local practices and beliefs associated with marriage. Granting spousal benefits or joint tax assessment to gay and lesbian couples, then, would be tantamount to going against the history of marriage in Hong Kong.

     The court is insistent on this point: phrases like “the Hong Kong context”, “history”, “tradition” and “long usage” appear repeatedly in the judgment.

     This inward turn towards the city’s supposedly unassailable lineage also underpins the court’s sidelining of developments in the long line of pro-gay jurisdictions around the world, including that of Britain, the United States, Taiwan and European countries like France and Germany... Click here to read the full article.

Marco Wan's Masculinity and the Trials of Modern Fiction Awarded Two Book Prizes

Congratulations to Marco Wan whose book, Masculinity and the Trials of Modern Fiction, published by Routledge in 2016, was awarded the 2017 Penny Pether Prize of the Law, Literature, and Humanities Association of Australasia. The citation for the book on the prize certificate reads as follows:

Marco Wan’s monograph, Masculinity and the Trials of Modern Fiction, is an exemplary work of law and literature. In Wan’s layered reading of five obscenity trials in 19th-century England and France, this book realises some of the most vital aims of the field. Wan’s command of law, and of literature, enables him to appraise the reading practices and pretensions of each, and to illuminate the courtroom conversations that take place between them. Wan asks a question at the heart of law and literature, how does the law read not just the texts but the novels that come before it? He answers this question by attending not only to final judgment, but to an original archive of trial transcripts, prosecution and defence submissions and oral argument. Wan’s reading of law’s encounter with these novels as shaping and preserving hegemonic forms of masculinity deepens his argument and extends the already impressive reach of this book. This is an exceptionally meticulous and beautifully crafted text: alongside its contribution of the fields of law, literature and masculinity and gender studies, Wan prosecutes his case with clarity and authority, and with the pleasure of the reader in mind.

The prize is awarded by the Association to the author whose book has, in the judgment of the Committee, made the most significant contribution to the field of Australasian law, literature and humanities. The prize honours the late Penny Pether (1957-2013), an Australian scholar whose passionate life-long commitment to the field pervaded every aspect of her teaching, research, and academic work. She helped convene the first conference of the Association and founded the interdisciplinary journal Law Text Culture. 

     As further testament to the excellence of the work, Masculinity and the Trials of Modern Fiction was awarded The University of Hong Kong's Research Output Prize 2016-17 in the Faculty of Law announced in January 2018.

Marco Wan Examines Hong Kong Identity in Insanity, a Film by David Lee (Law, Culture & Humanities)

"Dissent, Cultural Schizophrenia and Hong Kong Identity in David Lee’s Insanity"
Marco Wan

Law, Culture and the Humanities
April 2017, published online

Abstract: How does film capture the zeitgeist of a time of cultural and political conflict? This article investigates the relationship between Hong Kong cinema, identity and dissent in David Lee’s Insanity (2015). Drawing on the notion of cultural schizophrenia as posited by Frederic Jameson and reworked by a number of Hong Kong scholars, it argues that Lee’s film about clinical schizophrenia can be interpreted as a representation of the cultural schizophrenia characteristic of Hong Kong identity at the current time.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Part 2 of 2017)

Hong Kong Law Journal

Vol. 47, Part 2 of 2017

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Table of Contents

Articles
A Re-evaluation of “Incarceration Strategy” by Hong Kong Courts: The Overuse of Incarceration in Sentencing Juvenile Drug Offenders Gordon Chung	323
The Doctrinal and Normative Vacuity of Hong Kong’s Joint Enterprise Doctrine Dennis J Baker	349
A Critical Analysis of the Hong Kong Stamp Duty Implications of Corporate Amalgamations and the Repurchase by a Company of Its Own Shares Stefano Mariani	399
Challenging the “Majority Support” Argument on not Introducing Anti-discrimination Legislation on the Ground of Sexual Orientation in Hong Kong Suen Yiu Tung	421
The Success and Failure of Online Dispute Resolution Wei Gao	445
Interpreting Article 104: The Way, the How, the Timing Devin Lin, Valentin Günther and Mathias Honer	475
Lecture
Constitutional Dialogue and the Rule of Law Hon Justice Matthew Palmer	505
China Law
The Gap between Law and Practice: An Empirical Study on China’s High Pretrial Detention Rate Xifen Lin, Zihui Gu and Xi Lin	525
International Jurisdiction under the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements: Implications for China Huang Zhang	555
Examining Legislation in China’s Special Economic Zones: Framework, Practice and Prospects Yang Feng	585
Law and Justice in Evening Rain Alison W Conner	615
Review Articles
Lord Sumption and the Limits of the Law Hon Sir Anthony Mason	633
China’s Multi-layered Attitude towards State Sovereignty: Theory, Practice and Broad Implications Roda Mushkat	659
Book Reviews
Hong Kong Competition Law Carter Chim	689
The Commercial Appropriation of Fame: A Cultural Analysis of the Right of Publicity and Passing Off Marco Wan	693

Click here to read the abstracts of each article.  Hong Kong Law Journal is published by Sweet & Maxwell.  Full text is available on Westlaw.