More public interest lawyers can help ease Hong Kong's social tensions
Robert Precht says we need to create new opportunities for public interest lawyers
Recent headlines in the South China Morning Post are eloquent testimony that the Hong Kong government is failing in its role to provide a social safety net and protect the rights of its residents: "New town will leave 1,000 old people without homes"; "Indonesian maid 'left in diaper, tied to a chair';" "Ethnic minority pupils 'being set up to fail'."
Yet, as social tensions mount, the city is failing to make use of a key problem-solving tool: public interest lawyers. These are lawyers who make a career of "fighting for the little guy", representing the poor in courts, filing lawsuits that challenge government policy or inaction.
In the US, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, public interest law has flourished because there are abundant educational and job opportunities for law students who want to pursue this work. In Hong Kong, however, these opportunities are far fewer. As a result, the pool of public interest lawyers is small and the city is depriving itself of a powerful resource for quelling social discontent.
When I was a law student at the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s, I was enrolled in a clinical law programme that allowed me to argue a consumer protection case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
The city is depriving itself of a powerful resource for quelling social discontent
The experience was transformative. I learned about the problems faced by consumers who did not have adequate information to make informed choices and about the power of the law to remedy wrongs. I decided to devote my career to public interest legal work. After I graduated from law school, I went to work as a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of New York, which provides direct legal services to poor people. I earned a decent salary and was promoted.