【LHSS】The Common Law in Hong Kong Legal History

2月28日，受北京大学国际法学院（英文简称“STL”）邀请，香港大学法学院副院长Michael Ng教授将于我院举办主题为“The Common Law in Hong Kong Legal History ”的公开讲座，本次讲座由我院Norman Ho教授发起并主持，欢迎感兴趣的师生积极参与！具体信息如下：

Professor Michael Ng is a legal historian specializing in the legal history of modern China and Hong Kong. He authored three monographs and co-edited a number of volumes. His works have appeared in leading journals in both law and history fields such as Law and History Review, Business History Review, Law and Literature, Modern Asian Studies, International Journal of Asian Studies and Business History, among others. He has been appointed as visiting scholar of the University of Cambridge, Tsinghua University, the University of Melbourne and the National University of Singapore. Prior to joining HKU in 2012, Professor Ng has served in the legal and finance sectors for more than 15 years.

Prominent texts on the legal system of Hong Kong emphasize its inheritance of English rule-of-law principles. These features are said to contribute to a just and reasonable common-law legal order of Hong Kong. This presentation, drawing on unexplored archival materials sourced from Hong Kong and the UK, challenges these assumptions by arguing that for most of the British-controlled era, Hong Kong’s common-law regime lacked these characteristics. It also raises a more complex question: how should we classify a common-law system that lacks these features?