Give us our aircraft back Sixty years ago this month Hong Kong was transfixed and troubled by the tussle over the Chinese aeroplanes. Eighty-odd civil aircraft, mostly fairly new passenger planes of the era such as the Douglas DC-4, belonging to the...

The mandate of heaven means you can control the weather This might be called the Peking edition, for we were in Peking during the 60th anniversary celebrations – during, but not for. After spending a smoggy 30th September admiring the Bird’s...

A long distance from Oxford Jurisprudence Practising lawyers are rarely given to reflection about what they do and what law is, so it was pleasing to see a good sprinkling of them amongst the audience in mid-September to listen to Timothy Endicott, Dean...

Old chefs never retire, they just move to Sydney In Australia last week for a few days of cool air, to find Sydney as pleasant as ever. We had chosen a hotel within walking distance of Darling Harbour, Chinatown and the Central Station. The first to provide...

The following is a translated version of an original Chinese article published in the "Forum" section of Mingpao on 25 June 2009. At the 20th anniversary of the 4 June Massacre, at least about 20 mainland human rights lawyers could not pass...

In a recent article published in the South China Morning Post, Huen Wong, the recently appointed President of the Law Society of Hong Kong, suggested that Hong Kong law firms should consider Russia as a potential market for their services. This was on the...

The rewards of long service June 23rd : in the grandeur of HKU’s Loke Yew Hall, scene of concerts, conferences and examinations, presentations are made to a dozen long-term employees of the university. Among them is my colleague and fellow LexNex...

Curious customs make good work The young graduate from London must have been a curious sight to the villagers. He came among them, a gweilo speaking the Chinese of the north, and took a house in the village. There he held open-house, inviting his...

The season we must all endure Exam time at HKU: the season that both students and teachers hate though for different reasons. The students dislike the pressure and uncertainty, naturally; the teachers dislike the tedium of marking. That the exams coincide...

A matchbox that lasted Strange to say but it is 25 years ago this summer that the High Court Building in Queensway opened for business.  Denys Roberts the then Chief Justice and a major mover behind the building’s conception called it an upturned...

Decontainerisation is really under way You’ll have read in the newspapers about the closure of container yards as a result of orders for goods for Europe and America drying up and of factories in Guangdong closing down. I can confirm that it is...

Lawyers and law firms often maintain a love-hate relationship with reporters. When they have good news to tell about themselves or their clients, they actively seek media attention. When the news is not so good, they try to duck around the corner. Pestering...

In retreat The teachers of HKU's Law Faculty retreated to The Bea’s River Country Club last weekend for some self-analysis, not to mention self-criticism, and also for what I understand is called bonding. There are now about 70 teachers in the...

Some experienced attorneys are hot commodities right now – those practicing in the areas of litigation, bankruptcy, foreclosures, corporate securities or patent proceedings.   Other attorneys, not so much.   As the economy contracts,...

Clients want to hire lawyers and other professional service providers who are thought leaders within a specific area of expertise. One of the best ways to establish yourself as a thought leader is to make a compelling presentation -- on the right subject...

Mediation is as old as litigation, so why the fashion for it now? The vogue for mediation, or to be more accurate for the promotion of mediation, shows no sign of abating. The Chief Justice is all for mediation. The Secretary for Justice thinks we should...

Even the snakes appreciate a Hong Kong Christmas We stayed in Hong Kong over the Christmas/New Year period (except for 36 hours in Jouhai which hardly counts as going away) and were rewarded with good weather, good food and a good atmosphere. This was...

A public consultation document was released on 22 October 2008 by the Macau SAR Government advancing a proposal to give execution to the obligation stated in article 23 of the Macau Basic Law (which has the exact same wording as in Hong Kong) to criminalize...

Comparative campuses Spent four days last week in Singapore, not something I’m in the habit of doing. If you live in a crowded, expensive, humid, Asian maritime city with excellent food, the prospect of visiting a crowded, expensive, humid, Asian...

Railing against bureaucracy, a privilege of authorship One of the stranger changes to building management regulations in the 2007 reforms was the introduction of a solemn declaration to be made by all members of management committees that they are eligible...

Text abandoned: There’s no respite for authors these days During the past few months I’ve been beavering away at the second edition of Paul Kent’s and my Building Management in Hong Kong . The edition’s long overdue. It’s...

Mainland China adopts a socialist system with Chinese characteristics; Hong Kong adopts a laissez faire economic model. Each has different challenges to face in its proposed new competition laws. The coming into force of mainland China’s new Anti-Monopoly...

Last Monday October 27 the Government of Macau took the unprecedented step of releasing an official note on the SAR website ( www.gov.mo ) stating its position regarding one of the buildings being currently erected in the Cotai strip by the Venetian. Titled...

Guess who followed Scottish banking principles Back in the mid-1980s, the venerable Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, anxious to expand into Britain, tried to buy one of the even more venerable Scottish banks – Royal Bank of Scotland,...

北京市人民政府、北京市人大常委会： 早在2006年10月10日，市府相关负责人即表示正在调研是否取消暂住证，而由居住证取而代之的相关事宜。这是关系到北京６００万新市民的命运何去何从的重大公共议题，我们作为北京市民一员也非常关注，但鉴于市府有关的调研、改革方案尚未公之于众，我们谨以公民建议的方式表达我们对居住制度改革的观点和诉求。 自从我国确立市场经济以来，人力资源的流动日益频繁。但原有社会体制解构后却迟迟没有替代性的机制予以跟进，新市民一直被视为“暂住人口”，所居住城市还克隆出一套新的以有无当地户籍为划线并分而治之的居住管理体制。...

This catastrophe is not as bad as SARS, nor as entertaining as the cake crunch On the scale of crises I have known the current worldwide financial one ranks fairly high but not at the top. It shares the intangibility of the HK dollar uncertainty of 1983...

New Year, New Course Early September and the opening of the PCLL at HKU. All the big names were there: President Lester, Chairman Rimsky, Dean Johannes. Good to see our old students doing well. I remember them all from my first stint at Pokfulam in the...

“Every day is a Sunday…” ...so said Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad, deposed Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court, to the LAWASIA fact-finding mission when it apologised for interrupting his day of rest during a visit on Sunday 20 July...