With more and more foreign investors making a beeline for China, lawsuits involving non-mainland firms have also been rising, with 60 per cent of 2011 cases involving companies from Hong Kong and Macau, according to official figures.
To continue improving China's investment environment, authorities have prioritised the need to upgrade the nation's legal system through the provision of qualified legal services and to safeguard the rights of the investors.
As a key flank to these efforts, the Advanced Programme for Chinese Senior Judges is the first and only legal education programme for mainland senior judges in Hong Kong. It is jointly provided by the School of Law at City University (CityU) of Hong Kong and the National Judges College of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China.
Now on its fifth year, the two-week programme will see 31 senior judges from 28 mainland provinces learn about common and international law.
'The programme allows Chinese senior judges to comprehend the essence of the common law system, broaden their views and enhance their competency in adjudication,' Professor Chen Haiguang, vice-president of China's National Judges College, said at the programme's May 4 grand opening ceremony to welcome judges from the mainland.
Chen noted that more than 120 senior judges from the mainland had completed the programme.
Professor Way Kuo, the CityU president, said that the programme exemplified the idea of professional education and fostered cross-border knowledge exchanges among professionals, students and teachers.