Shilun Zhou on Whether chatbot-generated opinion can be trusted (International Journal of Evidence and Proof)

"Whether chatbot-generated opinion can be trusted: Application of the hearsay rule of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and inspiration for China's evidence law reform"
Shilun Zhou (PhD Candidate)
International Journal of Evidence and Proof
Published online: December 2025

Abstract: As part of its criminal justice reform, the UK Ministry of Justice issued a policy paper on the use of software-generated evidence in criminal proceedings. In response, this article consistently uses the term “chatbot-generated opinion,” while employing “chatbot testimony” metaphorically to compare chatbot responses in court to human testimony given in answer to a judge's questions. The article explores whether chatbot-generated opinion evidence can be trusted, focusing on the hearsay rule under the UK Criminal Justice Act 2003 and its implications for reforming China's evidence law. Contrary to prevailing views that exclude such evidence due to the lack of cross-examination, the article argues that chatbot opinions should not be directly accepted as testimony. It further explains that virtue jurisprudence offers an appropriate framework for identifying indicators of justified belief. Since a chatbot is incapable of having a moral motivation, this prevents judges from justifiably believing a chatbot's statement qua testimony. Introducing such an evidence analysis approach in China is significant. China's Confucian ethics and virtue jurisprudence highlight moral responsibility and motivation, providing a valuable foundation for the ongoing reform of China's evidence law and overcoming the limitations of its predominant objectivist approach to proof.

Shilun Zhou on Deconstructing ‘Responsible AI’: An Examination of Legal and Ethical Accountability Through Virtue Jurisprudence (Int J Semiot Law)

"Deconstructing ‘Responsible AI’: An Examination of Legal and Ethical Accountability Through Virtue Jurisprudence"
Shilun Zhou (PhD Candidate)
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law
Published online: November 2025

Abstract: This article deconstructs the legal semiotic of “Responsible AI” through the lens of virtue jurisprudence, addressing ethical dilemmas in technology-driven knowledge creation within the humanities. It critiques the misleading anthropomorphisation of AI, arguing that “Responsible AI” should be understood as “responsible in name only” and “accountable in reality”. By distinguishing between moral agency and legal accountability, it highlights AI’s dual legal attributes, including its anthropomorphic intelligent dimension and its distinct artificial nature. While the terms of reliability and AI could be semantically related at first glance, the virtue jurisprudence approach could distinguish the semiotic implications of “responsible AI” and “accountable AI”, by highlighting humans’ unique moral assessment capacity, which AI lacks, making AI accountable but not responsible. Emphasising such moral capacity not only justifies human’s refusal to be treated like machines but also provides a theoretical basis for a human-centred AI framework and guides the development of accountability AI in current legal practice. By examining the interplay between human virtue and technological systems, it calls for a renewed focus on human-centric ethical principles in the age of AI-driven knowledge production.

New book by Anupama Sharma: Implementation of Rights for Crime Victims in Theory and Practice Lessons from India

Implementation of Rights for Crime Victims in Theory and Practice Lessons from India
Anupama Sharma (PhD graduate)
Routledge
Published in September 2024
224 pp.

Description: There are many different ways in which victims’ rights can be implemented. The implementation pattern may vary depending on the type of rights a jurisdiction offers and the purposes it seeks to achieve via these rights. However, there are a few basic aspects that remain common to the variation in the implementation patterns across jurisdictions. This book provides a theoretical and practical overview of such implementation patterns, their features and underlying differences. It presents theoretical models capturing the different types of implementations of victims’ rights and the purposes that they can achieve. The book also offers a framework comprising the essential aspects involved in implementation of rights such as drafting and presentation, their visibility and accessibility to victims, enforcement of rights in case of breach, and assessment and evaluation of rights to ensure constant monitoring and improvement in implementation. The framework is tested by a sample case study in New Delhi, India, which showcases how the framework can be molded and applied to assess the existing implementation of victims’ rights and the scope for reform. The book will be of interest to those working in the areas of criminal justice, criminal procedure, victimology and human rights.

2nd Runner-Up of the HK45 2023 Essay Competition (Asia Emerging Economies Category)

Congratulations to our RPG student Miss Prakritee Yonzon for winning this year's HK45 Essay Competition with 2nd Runner-Up in the Asia Emerging Economies Category. Miss Yonzon's article is about the jurisdiction v. admissibility debate in contractual pre-conditions and how it impacts the arbitral tribunal. HK45 Essay Competition was established in 2022 to promote interest in and knowledge of issues relating to arbitration. The prizes are categorized into Asia Emerging Economies Category, and Hong Kong / Global Category. Winning essays are selected by an esteemed panel of judges. The top essay from both categories will be considered for publication in Asian Dispute Review. The essay from 1st runner up and 2nd runner up will be considered for publication in the Kluwer Arbitration Blog.

Douglas Arner and team on Regulating Artificial Intelligence in Finance and other Regulated Industries (new book chapter)

"Regulating artificial intelligence in finance and other regulated industries"

Douglas W. Arner, Ross P. Buckley, Dirk A. Zetzsche, Brian W. Tang & Lucien J. van Romburg

in Artificial Intelligence in Finance

Edited by Nydia Remolina & Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez (Edward Elgar Publishing, 14 Apr 2023)

Chapter 12

Abstract: This chapter develops a regulatory framework for understanding and addressing the increasing role of AI in finance, and focuses on human responsibility, the ‘human-in-the-loop’, as central to tackling AI ‘black box’ issues ie the risk that AI results in processes and operations unknown to and uncontrolled by human beings, producing undesirable results for which only the AI is responsible. Part II highlights the risks created by the increased reliance on AI in finance. Part III summarises the regulatory challenges concerning financial services AI and the tools available to address them and highlights the necessity to address the ‘black box’ problem. Part IV presents our solution to the latter problem. Part V concludes suggesting that our framework offers the potential to address ‘black box’ issues in the context of AI in finance but also in any regulated industry.

Douglas Arner, Giuliano Castellano, and Eriks Selga (RPg) on Financial Data Governance (Hastings Law Journal)

"Financial Data Governance"
Douglas W. Arner, Giuliano G. Castellano, and
Eriks K. Selga (RPg)
Hastings Law Journal, Volume 74, Issue 2, pp. 235-292
Published in 2023

Abstract: Finance is one of the most digitalized, globalized, and regulated sectors of the global economy. Traditionally technology intensive, the financial industry has been at the forefront of digital transformation, starting with the dematerialization of financial assets in the 1960s and culminating in the post–2008 global financial crisis era with the fintech movement. Now, finance is data: financial transactions are transfers of data; financial infrastructures, such as stock exchanges and payment systems, are data networks; financial institutions are data processors, gathering, analyzing, and trading the data generated by their customers. Financial regulation has adapted to this fast-paced evolution both by implementing new regimes and by adapting existing ones. Concomitantly, general data governance frameworks to protect a broad spectrum of interests, from individual privacy to national security, have emerged. Though these areas of law intersect, their relationship often remains unclear. This Article sheds new light in this critical area, focusing on key challenges and providing viable solutions to address them.

Shiling Xiao (RPg) & Yang Lin (RPg) on Judicial Review of Administrative Rules in China: Incremental Expansion of Judicial Power (The Journal of Comparative Law)

"Judicial Review of Administrative Rules in China: Incremental Expansion of Judicial Power"
Shiling Xiao  (RPg: currently postdoc) & Yang Lin (RPg: currently ARO) 

The Journal of Comparative Law, Special Part: Issues in Administrative Justice, Volume XVII, Issue 2, pp. 371-392

published in 2022

Abstract: Since 1989 when China adopted its first Administrative Litigation Law (ALL), it had long excluded administrative rulemaking from the court’s purview in administrative litigation, known as the Chinese judicial review of government actions. The courts were not expressly vested with the power to review administrative rules until the first amendment to the ALL in 2014. This article examines the evolution of the Chinese judicial review of administrative rulemaking and the court’s practice in the last seven years (2014-2021). It argues that whereas the judicial empowerment in 2014 is a symbolically significant step toward improving Chinese administrative rulemaking, public accountability, and the rule of law, China has merely established a weak-form judicial review of administrative rules, and the timid and deferential approach of the courts to this new empowerment seriously limits the judicial function of supervising government’s policy-making. This article underlines that judicial review of administrative rules in China is tied to limitations with regard to the scope, intensity and effect of the review. Only administrative normative documents that are at the bottom of the hierarchy of the Chinese legal system and have the lowest legal force are amenable to judicial review. The courts are not expected to scrutinise the reasonableness and proportionality of these documents, and they cannot even strike down invalid ones. They employ the report and record procedure to transfer the decision power to high courts. In practice, the courts declined pleas for reviewing administrative rules in most cases. Even when they accepted the review requests, they seldom closely and effectively scrutinised the substantive content and merits of administrative normative documents. During administrative litigation, they also consulted with the executive authorities and deferred to their opinion. 

Podcast on Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific: hosted by Jane Richards (RPg)

Podcast on 

Anna Dziedzic's Foreign Judges in the Pacific  (Hart Publishing 2021)

November 25, 2022

Description: While it might ordinarily be assumed that judges who sit on constitutional courts will be local citizens, in the islands of the Pacific, more than three-quarters of judges are foreign. This is book about that unique phenomenon, but a phenomenon that has global implications. Foreign Judges in the Pacific (Hart, 2021) is a comprehensive study which brings together original empirical research, together with legal analysis and constitutional theory, and traces the impact and influence of foreign judging on nine states Pacific states: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

     Dr Anna Dziedzic's study is a cutting-edge and pertinent contribution to constitutional law and jurisprudence. This work brings unique analysis of concepts such as cultural understanding, transnational knowledge sharing, and the importance of nationality in the task of judging. What really drew me to the book and kept me engaged in the work was not just the depth and richness of the study, but that practice of foreign judging in these under-studied Pacific does matter, and has broad lessons for all scholars, policy makers and lawyers who practice and research in all areas of constitutional law. There is a lot to be learnt from this study, and the quality of its analysis will arguably be found to be without parallel.

Interviewee: 

Dr Anna Dziedzic is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School. She researches comparative constitutional law and judicial studies, with a particular focus on the Pacific region.

Host: 

Jane Richards is a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. You can find her on twitter where she follows all things related to human rights and Hong Kong politics @JaneRichardsHK

Shiling Xiao (RPg) on Judicial Review and Standards of Review in Macao (new book chapter)

"Judicial Review and Standards of Review in Macao"

Shiling Xiao (RPg)

in Routledge Handbook of Constitutional Law in Greater China, ed. by Ngoc Son Bui, Stuart Hargreaves, and Ryan Mitchell (Routledge, Dec 29 2022), Chapter 11, pp. 169-184

Abstract: This chapter examines the judicial review mechanisms of the Macau special administrative regions and the judicial review practice of the Court of Final Appeal of Macau in the last two decades after the handover. In the era of colonial Macau, there were mechanisms of constitutional review. The courts could either appeal to the constitutional court in Lisbon or reject to apply the laws they consider unconstitutional and invalid. The Fundamental Law on Judicial Organisation, a new law on the judicial organisation of the Macau SAR, came into force on that day China resumed its sovereignty over Macau. Due to the influence of the Portuguese centralised model of administrative review, Macau established a specific administrative tribunal, the Administrative Tribunal, which is specialised in litigation in relation to administrative, tax and customs duties matters. The Administrative Tribunal enjoys common and residual jurisdiction at first instance over administrative disputes.

New Issue of Hong Kong Law Journal (Vol. 52, Part 1 of 2022)

HONG KONG LAW JOURNAL

Vol. 52, Part 1 of 2022

Editor-in-Chief: Professor Rick Glofcheski

Associate Editor: Professor Albert Chen

Publisher: Sweet & Maxwell

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

Lecture

Food, Clothing and Housing as Human Rights 

Kemal Bokhary… 1

Articles

The 2019 Rendition Saga in Hong Kong: A Perspective on the Tensions Inherent in “One Country, Two Systems”

Fan Xiang… 9

The 2019 political storm in Hong Kong, triggered by resistance to a proposed law that would have created an institutional channel for the extradition of fugi¬tives from Hong Kong to Mainland China, resulted in the most severe and prolonged civil unrest in this city since China resumed exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. This article considers the nature of the 2019 rendi¬tion saga in the context of the tensions inherent in the constitutional framework of “One Country, Two Systems”. It is contended that there are contradictions within the structure of the “One Country, Two Systems” formula such that it encourages and yet limits a Western-style liberal democracy in Hong Kong. It is argued that the prolonged anti-extradition movement is no more than a reflection of the internal contradictions of “One Country, Two Systems” but in a more ferocious way than before. If this paradox is not resolved properly, it is doomed to plague Hong Kong in the future.

Recordation and Review by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee under the Hong Kong Basic Law 

Paul Law and Trevor Wan… 43

This article explores the Recordation and Review Mechanisms anchored in art 17(2) and 17(3) of the Basic Law which provides for the obligation of Hong Kong to report enacted laws to the China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) for the record and the NPCSC’s corresponding powers to review and return any such laws. We argue that the Recordation and Review Mechanisms are an interconnected set of constitutional enforcement mecha¬nisms for the NPCSC to police the constitutional limits of Hong Kong’s auton¬omy. Furthermore, we highlight and examine two ambiguities in art 17(2) and 17(3), namely the lack of any mention of conditions under which the art 17(3) review process could be triggered and the ambiguous legal status of reported laws that have not been returned by the NPCSC. This article then undertakes a comparative study vis-a-vis the Chinese Filing and Review System, China’s key legislative supervisory system, which we argue is indispensable in fully understanding the operation of Hong Kong’s Recordation and Review Mechanisms and resolve the two ambiguities highlighted. We sketch, drawing on the Chinese Filing and Review System, how the review process could be activated and how NPCSC’s power of review could be reconciled with local courts’ jurisdiction of constitutional review through developing a framework elucidating the proper judicial responses to a “passive confirmation” by the NPCSC in not returning a submitted law under different circumstances.

The CISG and its Extension to a Territorial Unit of a Contracting State: The Case of HongKong 

Liu Qiao… 67

A Sophisticated Solution for Overlapping Maritime Areas: Is Joint Development Keyfor the East China Sea? 

Horus Qi, Pengfei Zhang and Tingting Ni… 89

Parent Company’s Joint Liability in Tort: An Alternative to Manage Corporate Tort Problems 

Xue Feng… 117

The Unity of Non-territoriality in Outer Space versus the Diversity of Territoriality in Intellectual Property: A Reconciliation Regime for Sustainable Space Commercialization 

Chen Zhijie… 157

No-Fault Divorce: The Right Direction towards Therapeutic Justice 

Leon Vincent Chan and Andrea Ang Si Min… 183

Regulating Weighted Voting Rights in Asia: Pragmatism or a Race to the Bottom?

Charlie Weng Xiaochuan… 209

Diversity of Mediation and its Impact on the Singapore Mediation Convention

Cai Wei… 237

China Law

The Doctrine of  Kompetenz-Kompetenz: A Sino-French Comparative Perspective 

Fu Panfeng… 259

The Mandatory Bid Rule’s Dispensation Regime for the Gratuitous Transfer of State-owned Shares in China: An Analysis from the Perspective of Efficiency 

Xue Renwei… 289

The Autonomy of Charities in China 

Hui Jing… 323

The Charity Law, which was promulgated in 2016, creates a public law-pri¬vate law hybrid model for the regulation of charities in China. The incorpora¬tion of private law norms into the new legislative framework demonstrates the state’s willingness to confer greater autonomy on charitable actors with regard to determining how their assets can be utilised for charitable purposes. This article analyses the associated post-2016 regulatory framework and outlines the extent to which private actors can voluntarily engage in charitable activities after the passage of the new charity law. It also reports the way in which the new regulatory framework has been implemented in practice based on data col¬lected through semi-structured interviews. Observations associated with regula¬tory practices suggest that the political philosophy underlying the new regulatory framework remains unchanged: strict government control remains predomi¬nant, and the scope for private actors to exercise their management rights is still considerably limited.

Unravelling the Paradigm Shift of Imposing Capital Punishment for Property Offences in Early Qing Dynasty

Meng Ye and Chen Li… 351

Government as a Platform Chinese Style: The Health Code in China’s Rapidly Developing Digital Ecosystem

June Wang Zhiqiong… 367

Book Review

Towering Judges: A Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges

Evan Rosevear... 397

Transnational Sex-Trafficking

Patricia Ho… 403

New Book by Melissa Loja (PhD 2018): International Agreements between Non-State Actors as a Source of International Law (Hart)

International Agreements between Non-State Actors as a Source of International Law

Melissa Loja (PhD 2018)

Bloomsbury

272 pp.

Published in September 2022

This book examines whether international agreements between non-state actors can be identified as a source of international law using objective criteria. It asks whether, beyond Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, there is a system of rules, processes, beliefs or semantics by which these agreements can be objectively identified as a source of international law. Departing from the more usual state-centric analysis, it adopts postmodern legal positivism as its analytical tool. This allows for the reality that international law-making takes place in subjective social landscapes. To test the effectiveness of this approach, it is applied to agreements between petroleum agencies and corporations which allow two or more states to exploit disputed resources across boundaries looking in particular at arrangements involving China, Vietnam and the Philippines. By so doing it illustrates an alternative way that states can manage disputes, without having to resort to conflict. It will appeal to both scholars and practitioners of public international law, as well as civil servants.

New Book by Agnes Chong (PhD graduate): International Law for Freshwater Protection

International Law for Freshwater Protection
Series: International Water Law Series, Volume: 9
Agnes Chong (PhD graduate)
Brill
Published in April 2022

Description: International Law for Freshwater Protection traces the development of international water law on fresh water protection and demonstrates how the regime focuses on the utilisation and rights of sovereign states over the protection and sustainable growth of shared water resources. The evolving jurisprudence influenced by environmental law highlights the regime’s insufficient focus on the environmental protection of watercourses. This book argues that existing rules, mechanisms and norms within international law can address the regime’s imbalance and establish how these might be applied to improve freshwater protection.

Abdulkadir Yilmazcan on The Slow Train to Reforming Anti-Dumping Measures (Amicus Curiae)

"The Slow Train to Reforming Anti-Dumping Measures"

Abdulkadir Yilmazcan (PhD graduate)

Amicus Curiae

Series 2, Vol 3, No. 2, pp. 335-360
Published in 2022

Abstract: This essay examines the need for and slow progress towards a revision of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, but they are without positive outcomes. Several reasons account for this failure such as the deadlock in the Doha Development Round, mega trade agreements and the willingness of top anti-dumping users to engage in meaningful reform. In this paper, alternative solutions are proposed to settle the hidden trade protectionism in anti-dumping investigations. Normative solutions include a comprehensive reform of the Anti-Dumping Agreement. Such a revision has already been suggested in the literature, but this study departs from most others by prioritizing procedural issues rather than substantive ones. The study proposes changes to enhancing procedural justice in anti-dumping processes.

Jane Richards on Discrimination against Defendants with Disabilities in the Hong Kong Criminal Justice System: Unfitness to Plead Rules, the Insanity Defence and Disposition Orders (HKLJ)

"Discrimination against Defendants with Disabilities in the Hong Kong Criminal Justice System: Unfitness to Plead Rules, the Insanity Defence and Disposition Orders"
Jane Richards (PhD candidate)
Hong Kong Law Journal, 

2021, Vol. 51, Part 3 of 2021, pp. 875-916

Abstract: In 1996 and 1997, in recognition of the inappropriate outcomes available for people who have mental disabilities and commit crimes, the Hong Kong Government introduced legislative reforms. These reforms aimed to ensure that people with mental disabilities would not be detained indefinitely without proof that they had committed the physical element of the crime and also sought to give judges broader discretion in the range of disposition orders available. This article analyses those legislative reforms and finds that they were largely successful in achieving their policy objectives. However, in light of Hong Kong’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the analysis also shows that Hong Kong’s legislative framework discriminates against persons with mental disabilities who are accused of criminal offences or who receive an insanity acquittal. The article concludes that further reform is needed; however, what this should look like is unclear.

Shiling Xiao on Chinese Special Confiscation Procedure: Rules, Implementation and Problems (HKLJ)

"Chinese Special Confiscation Procedure: Rules, Implementation and Problems"

Shiling Xiao (PhD candidate)
Hong Kong Law Journal, 

2021, Vol. 51, Part 3 of 2021, pp. 1041-1074

Abstract: China adopted a special confiscation procedure as an alternative measure for confiscating crime-tainted properties in 2013 and significantly amended this procedure in 2017. This article examines the substantive rules of this special confiscation regime and its implementation between 2013 and 2019. The examination reveals three problems of this regime with regard to its law-making and law-enforcement. First, the law-making process is unconstitutional. This regime comprises mainly judicial interpretations issued by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. These interpretations fundamentally amended the law promulgated by the legislature in excess of judicial interpretation power. Second, the prosecutors and courts have abused the special confiscation procedure. They applied it to property involved in offences falling outside the statutory scope of applicable offences. Third, some confiscations appear grossly disproportionate. The courts have neither acknowledged nor established an approach to proportionality in the confiscation procedure. They neglect the relationship between property and offences and confiscate property once they ascertain that the property belongs to or is under the control of the suspect.

Yahong Li & Zhaoxia Deng on Players’ Rights to Game Mods: Towards a More Balanced Copyright Regime (Computer Law & Security Review)

"Players’ Rights to Game Mods: Towards a More Balanced Copyright Regime"
Yahong Li & Zhaoxia Deng

Computer Law & Security Review
Published in November 2021
Abstract: In the context of video game, there is a notable convergence between the users and producers of content. There is also a tension between control over created content and innovative uses of that content, which arises from the gap existed between copyright law and the emerging practices of online communities. This paper examines a distinct form of player-contributed content, namely game Mods, through the perspective of social welfare rather than that of content creators. It argues that law is not the only factor affecting copyright owners’ decision-making behavior; social and economic factors also play an essential role. These factors explain why game developers may tolerate or even encourage minor alterations to their works but prohibit total conversion of the Mods. Given that the existing law and terms of service cannot serve as “effective cure” for regulating game Mods, this paper explores the social and economic factors that impact how game corporations address modding, framing these factors in a four-quadrant model according to the relative benefits and harm of Mods to game developers and users/modders. The inconsistency between the letter of the law and its practical application in the modding context suggests a need for law reform. Based on the findings of the above examinations, this paper proposes a two-pronged solution to the modding problem. The first prong concerns the social benefit of game Mods, aiming at changing the copyright regime from being exclusive to non-exclusive, which confers on gamers the legal right to modify video games without permission but obliges them to remunerate the original developers for commercial use of those Mods. The second prong concerns the potential social harm of game Mods and proposes a community-based approach, under which game operators are imposed a common law duty to monitor infringement and to ensure the fair implementation of game developers’ terms of service.  Click here to download the article (until 22 January 2022).

New Book by Kalana Senaratne: Internal Self-Determination in International Law (CUP)

Internal Self-Determination in International Law: History, Theory, and Practice
Kalana Senaratne (PhD 2014)
Cambridge University Press
Publication Date: December 2021

Description: Internal self-determination is an under-explored topic in international law. It is popularly understood to be a principle of relatively recent origin, promoting democratic freedoms to populations and autonomy for minority groups within states. It has also been viewed as a principle receiving the support of Western states, in particular. In this first book-length critical study of the topic, the reader is invited to rethink the history, theory and practice of internal self-determination in a complex world. Kalana Senaratne shows that it is a principle of great, but varied, potential. Internal self-determination promises democratic freedoms and autonomy to peoples; but it also represents an idea which is not historically new, and is ultimately a principle which can be promoted for different and conflicting purposes. Written in a clear and accessible style, this book will be of interest to international lawyers, state-officials, minority groups, and students of law and politics.

PhD candidate Ms Zhang Hongjiao Awarded Third Place in ATRIP Essay Competition 2020

 

Congratulations to Ms Hongjiao Zhang, HKU PhD candidate under the supervision of Dr Yahong Li, on winning the third place at the ATRIP Essay Competition 2020 with her paper “A Typological Framework for the Implied License Doctrine in Copyright Law”.   

Abstract: In property law, the transfer of the possession of movable property and the registration system of real estate can demonstrate the transfer of property ownership. However, intellectual property, including copyright, is intangible. The ownership of copyright cannot be inferred from the possession of the material object in which the work is embodied because the ownership of copyright is distinct from the ownership of the material object. Thus, to enhance the predictability and certainty of copyright ownership, including exclusive licenses of copyrighted works, a signed document is required in many jurisdictions. Nonexclusive licenses, however, carry no such requirements and can be granted via oral expression or implied from conduct. The point of the leading copyright treaties that “a nonexclusive license may be granted via oral expression or implied from conducts” has been cited in many US copyright cases. In this sense, an implied license addresses a gap in copyright law.  The paper can be downloaded here.

Podcast Interview with Professor Scott Veitch on his latest book, Obligations: New Trajectories in Law (New Books Network)

Professor Scott Veitch was interviewed by Jane Richards, a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong for the New Books Network. In the interview, Professor Veitch discusses his latest book Obligations: New Trajectories in Law. In his book, Professor Veitch challenges the normative assumptions that shape law and social practices, and shows how obligations and practices of obedience are core to sustaining the inequalities faced by members of the global community. In doing so, Professor Veitch explores the potential and enduring role that obligations have in furthering individual and collective well-being. He offers an alternative trajectory for the current crises faced by all citizens today, including environmental degradation and human inequality and injustice. Click here to listen to the podcast.

Elaine Yim (MPhil 2021) on A Buck-Passing Account of ‘Moral Equality’ (Res Publica)

"A Buck-Passing Account of ‘Moral Equality’"

Elaine Yim (MPhil 2021) 

Res Publica , Volume 27, pp. 25–40

Published in 2021

Abstract: The belief that all human beings are ‘moral equals’ is widespread within the canon of Western liberal philosophy. However, it is unclear precisely what ‘moral equality’ or its associate terms mean, what grounds our ‘moral equality’ and what the implications of being ‘moral equals’ are. In this paper, I distinguish between three ways of understanding ‘moral equality’: the ‘buck-passing’, ‘explanatory’ and ‘reverse-explanatory’ accounts. The buck-passing account of moral equality is in parallel with Scanlon’s buck-passing account of value. It holds that ‘moral equality’ is not a metaphysically fundamental concept and simply amounts to having other properties shared equally by all human beings that constitute the reasons for why we ought to treat all human beings equally in certain respects. The explanatory account understands the concept of ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental and explanatory of why human beings who are the same in certain respects have the same entitlement to x. The reverse-explanatory account also sees ‘moral equality’ as metaphysically fundamental but holds that the explanatory relationship goes the other way round: moral equality is explained by how we ought to act. I argue that the buck-passing account is a more accurate way of understanding moral equality.