The Changing Legal Orders In Hong Kong And Mainland China Essays On One Country Two Systems

This collection of selected works by Professor Albert H.Y. Chen shows the contours of the author’s scholarship as it developed over 35 years of his academic career, from 1984 to the present. The essays are divided into three sections which cover the three major domains of Professor Chen’s research. Part I covers the legal developments and controversies of “One Country, Two Systems” since the Hong Kong interpretation on “the right of abode” in 1999 to the anti-extradition movement of 2019. Part II shifts to focus on tradition and modernity in Chinese Law, including China’s Confucian and Legalist traditions and how the socialist legal system in China evolved and modernized in the era of “reform and opening”. Part III examines the transplantation of Western thinking and constitutionalism to East Asia in modern times and discusses the achievements and failures of these efforts. In conjunction with an introductory chapter that sets out the basic orientation and paradigm of these legal and constitutional studies and an epilogue that reflects on the main themes, this collection exemplifies the author’s important contributions to the field and provides insight into how the legal orders in Hong Kong and mainland China have changed over the course of Professor Chen’s academic career.

As Hong Kong enters its third year under Chinese rule, the prognosis for the common law remains uncertain. Can the improbable doctrine of 'one country, two systems' be made to work? Will the political controversies that continue to bedevil the territory undermine the rule of law and the integrity of the legal order? The 21 essays in this important new collection consider these, and many other, questions. The first part examines several problems that lie at the heart of the Basic Law's promise of legal continuity. Hong Kong's economic order and its legal buttresses are analysed in Part 2, while the essays in Part 3 trace the shifts in social values as reflected both in Chinese and Hong Kong law. Though they embrace a wide area, the contributions to this volume suggest that, while many problems lie ahead, Hong Kong's law and legal system seem adequately entrenched to endure well into the future. Raymond Wacks is Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong. He is an international authority on the legal protection of privacy, and has also published widely in the field of legal theory. Professor Wacks has edited several books on Hong Kong law and human rights. His recent books include Privacy and Press Freedom (1995). The fifth edition of his text, Jurisprudence will appear in early 2000. “(B)y far the most comprehensive study of the post-1997 legal order I have come across, covering nearly all the subjects which the Basic Law touches upon... (I)t contains much insightful analysis of the historical development and future issues surrounding each topic... A very valuable contribution to scholarship... Far more importantly, there is no collection that comes close to such an array of good analysis on so many topics.” — Anthony Neoh, SC, Visiting Professor, Peking University

In the tumultuous negotiations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, the United Kingdom willingly signed over Hong Kong's reigns to the People's Republic of China, but with the presupposition that the PRC would faithfully implement the principle of 'one country, two systems' for the following fifty years. Yet since the handover in 1997, the PRC has failed to allow Hong Kong a higher degree of autonomy. 'One Country, Two Systems' in Crisis elucidates how China's intervention has curtailed Hong Kong's civil liberties; how freedom of speech is at the mercy of the government; and how deception has turned the 'Pearl of the Orient' into the rubber stamp of the Chinese Communist Party.

The book provides a series of chronologically arranged essays that chart the history of the great transformation of Hong Kong's political ordering under the 'One Country Two Systems' Principle that started with mass street protests in early June 2019 and ended with the promulgation of a National Anthem and National Security Law for Hong Kong in June-July 2020. The essays examine the evolution of the political, economic, social, and cultural responses of the three major actors--the Chinese central authorities, the Hong Kong protesters, and the international community (principally the US and UK). The essays analyze the transformation of the One Country Two Systems principle that followed this extraordinary and sometimes violent engagement from one that appeared to emphasize the distinctiveness of Hong Kong's system, to one that appeared to refocus the political framework to better on the alignment Hong Kong with the political system of China. The object is to capture not just the strategic and normative developments that produced the new order for Hong Kong in June 2020, but also to give a sense of the uncertainties and anticipations as the events themselves unfolded during the course of the year. The process of ideological genesis over the course of the year is best captured from a state of anticipation without the benefit of foresight. The essays , then, do not look back on events after the fact, but speculate, discover, and captures moments that from June 2020 look inevitable but which from the perspective of June 2019 appeared far less so. They are meant to retain the freshness of the moment.

“One Country, Two Systems, Three Legal Orders” – Perspectives of Evolution – : Essays on Macau’s Autonomy after the Resumption of Sovereignty by China” can be said, in a short preamble-like manner, to be a book that provides a comprehensive look at several issues regarding public law that arise from, or correlate with, the Chinese apex motto for reunification – One Country, Two Systems – and its implementation in Macau and Hong Kong. Noble and contemporary themes such as autonomy models and fundamental rights are thoroughly approached, with a multilayered analysis encompassing both Western and Chinese views, and an extensive comparative law acquis is also brought forward. Furthermore, relevant issues on international law, criminal law, and historical and comparative evolutions and interactions of different legal s- tems are laid down in this panoramic, yet comprehensive book. One cannot but underline the presence, in the many approaches and comments, of a certain aura of a modern Kantian cosmopolitanism revisitation throughout the work, especially when dealing with the cardinal principle of «One Country, Two Systems», which enabled a peaceful and integral reunification ex vi international law – the Joint Declarations – that ended an external and distant control.

The legal issues evoked by cross-border crime in Hong Kong and China are sparse and what does exist is mostly in Chinese. This book provides the first systematic, comprehensive, and in-depth analysis of how Chinese, British, Hong Kong, and international law were applied in the “Big Spender” case. Kam C. Wong outlines the respective positions of various parties to the dispute. Part of the case’s fascination involves competing interests, and that political clout counted for more than legal theory. “Big Spender” may be little known outside Hong Kong and China, but he made history there. It was the first time a Hong Kong legal resident had been prosecuted, tried, and ultimately executed in China for acts largely perpetrated in Hong Kong. The case tested the limits of the one-country, two-systems approach under which Hong Kong and China coexist. It also forced politicians, government officials, and the public in both Hong Kong and China to come to terms with the legal and policy issues related to cross-border crime. Wong sees the “Big Spender” case as making clear the dire need for both sides to find workable solutions to concurrent jurisdiction, police cooperation, and judicial assistance. Until there is an acceptable arrangement governing the rendition of offenders between Hong Kong and mainland China, the one- country, two-systems formula cannot be stabilized. This is a “case study” in large-scale terms.

初步回顧和展望基本法頒佈二十七年和“一國兩制”實踐二十年，總結經驗和汲取教訓。 研究香港回歸二十年政治發展與特區管治的問題，為香港日後的政治發展提出一些有利於特區管治的意見