Hong Kong’s rule of law is riddled with loopholes and arbitrary application

Philip Bowring says the controversy surrounding Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng points to the underlying bias in the drafting and application of regulations that bolsters the interests of the rich and powerful in Hong Kong

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The authorities appear reluctant to crack down on illegal structures in the New Territories. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:32am, 10 Feb 2018Updated: 9:53pm, 10 Feb 2018

Whatever the specific rights and wrongs, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah’s issues over property and stamp duty are a pointer to fundamental problems with Hong Kong’s administration and its sense of justice.

Firstly, it is a reminder that application of the Buildings Ordinance in relation to so-called illegal structures is arbitrary, selective, and open to corruption.

Most glaringly, failure to implement the law is almost the norm in the New Territories. The New Territories are also the subject of widespread illegal land use which apparently does not trouble the Lands Department.

Meanwhile, in the urban areas, there appears to be wide variations in application. Many obvious rooftop structures and enclosed balconies are in plain sight but there is a grey area between what is deemed illegal and what is simply a change of use.

At the same time, many flat owners suffer from very petty demands to remove small structures which are neither dangerous nor interfere with neighbours. A few years ago, my flat was subject to a demand to replace an air conditioner frame in place for a dozen or more years, which was deemed a few centimetres larger than what was then allowed.

Selective law enforcement necessarily brings the law generally into disrepute. In the case of the New Territories, this is quite clearly politically driven, another appeasement of the Heung Yee Kuk. All this is, of course, well known to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor from her five years as secretary for development. So one can only grit one’s teeth when one hears her going on about the need to obey the law and applauding exemplary sentences for youngsters demonstrating more energetically than the law allows.

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