Under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (Cap 311), the Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) set out the targeted maximum levels of the numerous pollutants that affect air quality in Hong Kong. These pollutants are emitted from different sources and are thus regulated...

The 2009 Cross Strait Four Regions Lawyers Summit provides a great opportunity for prominent legal professionals from the Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan to discuss trends and developments in the legal services industry in order to help build...

Public interest litigation (PIL) is an important tool for bringing about socio-economic change in many developed and developing countries. This type of legal action is brought by an applicant with no private interest in the subject matter of the case. He...

This article in two parts will attempt to describe, and constructively comment on, the current Hong Kong laws in respect of asset recovery and the closely associated offences of money laundering and the reporting thereof, with particular reference to legal...

The legal industry has often been accused of being slow to evolve. Be it billing processes, the adoption of time-saving technology or the perceived lack of flexible working practices, there is a view that the industry lags behind. However, the global financial...

In recent weeks we have begun to see the first signs of improvements in the global economy. Much to everyone’s relief, the financial markets are reporting positive activity, major economies have moved out of recession, job losses have started to slow...

The State Council issued the ‘Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta Region (2008-2020)’ (the Outline) this January, expanding the scope of affairs in which the Guangdong and Hong Kong governments can negotiate...

I moved to Hong Kong from Toronto, Canada in 1995 as a newly minted barrister and solicitor. I had studied refugee law and international human rights law at Osgoode Hall Law School and, given my wish to practice human rights law, I was fortuitous to have...

This July, the Law Society of Hong Kong held a series of seminars on foreign-related legal services for enterprises, in collaboration with the provincial lawyers associations of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and with China Council for the Promotion of International...

Mediation has been very much in the spotlight over the past year or so with the advent of Hong Kong’s Civil Justice Reform on 2 April 2009. Indeed, mediation as a concept is incorporated in the underlying objectives of Order 1A.4(2)(e) of the new Rules...

Recently, a lawyer visiting from Shanghai, after attending a few hearings in our courts, told me that she was very impressed by the attitude of the judges and practitioners here. In particular, she observed that they all seemed to deal with their cases very...

There is, it seems, a growing dissatisfaction in the international legal services market, particularly from large corporate users of legal services. Some simply want cheaper service in recessionary times; others want more certainty about their budgetary commitment....

Robert Sawhney sets the scene in chapter one of Marketing Professional Services in Asia by citing that in Hong Kong alone there are over 10,000 professional services businesses employing over 80,000 professionals. The professional services sector - including...

In June 2008, a district court in Guangzhou ruled that Qiqihar No 2 Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, as well as two other companies and a hospital in Guangzhou, were to share responsibility for 14 deaths that resulted from counterfeit drugs. The civil award, a...

Sir Laurence Street, AC, KCMG, QC, HFAIB, KStJ, has had a long and distinguished career in and outside the law. He was called to the New South Wales Bar in 1951 and later took silk, before becoming an Equity Judge of the Supreme Court in 1965. In 1974 he...

Since the main text of CEPA was signed on 29 June 2003, there has been a series of supplements, including the recently announced Supplement 6 (CEPA 6), that incorporate further liberalisation measures on trade in goods and services between the Mainland and...

Mediation is not a concept that the profession can now afford to ignore. Judicial and official support for it is, thankfully, too strong for it to wither on the vine as a passing fad. Experience shows that mediation does work in practice and it can bring...

The story of the Welsh devolution settlement makes an interesting comparison to the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. What is the devolution settlement and how was it negotiated and implemented? There was talk of devolution for many years in...

Although Hong Kong's Civil Justice Reform has drawn heavily upon the Woolf Reform in England, it has eventually taken a rather different direction. Instead of adopting an entirely new procedural code as in the English Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), we have...

Civil Justice Reform has been a long time in coming. Propositions for reform were first made in 2001 and the research into what is best for Hong Kong, public consultations and ensuing legislation have now all been completed. The Law Society has, like the...

The rules of procedure exist to enable civil litigation to be conducted in a way that is fair and effective and allows parties to resolve their disputes in a satisfactory manner. The objective of Civil Justice Reform is to improve the way in which we conduct...

The 2008 financial tsunami has shattered not only a seemingly unassailable investment bank, Lehman Brother Holdings Inc (Lehman), but also the financial dreams of over forty thousand local lay investors who invested part or all of their life savings in Lehman's...

With the outlook for the world economy continuing to look bleak, many organisations are predictably taking a hard look at their IT expenditures to identify projects that can be cut or deferred. The reality, however, is that business needs for available data...

The global financial system experienced its first systemic crisis since the 1930s in autumn 2008, with the failure of major financial institutions and the seizure of global credit markets. Although Hong Kong was not at the epicentre of this crisis, it has...

What do ostriches and law firms have in common? With his head buried in the sand, the ostrich is oblivious to approaching danger. With no client feedback mechanism, an unprepared law firm is often oblivious to the significant dangers of client dissatisfaction....

On 7 December 2008, the Hong Kong Department of Justice, the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Law Society of Hong Kong sent delegates to attend the public event 'Shenzhen Legal Panorama' held at the Kite Square of Shenzhen's Lotus Hill Park. The Law Society...

It is hardly controversial to say that the world is becoming increasingly globalised. The ever-improving human capacity to move ideas and objects around the world continues to raise the levels of cultural cross-fertilisation and commercial cooperation. There...

In a nutshell, what is the School of Transnational Law? The STL introduces the first Juris Doctor programme with American law content taught by US professors in China. It is a highly innovative and very challenging enterprise. How was the programme...

Mr Justice Anthony M Kennedy Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Mr Justice Kennedy was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1988 and has a long list of distinguished achievements as a judge, a lecturer and a private...

The words 'human rights' have a different meaning for every person or group. Many persons may not be able to list one human right. To some, even though human rights may be generally considered to be something good, they are not that important on a practical...