It could open doors to further co-operation, says legal sector The legal community yesterday welcomed as a 'cautious first step' the impending pact between Hong Kong and the mainland to make commercial judgments delivered in each others' courts enforceable on both sides of the border. They said the arrangement's scope would be limited and that many other jurisdictional issues still needed sorting out between the two sides, but that it could open the doors to more co-operation. Bar Association chairman Philip Dykes said the Basic Law recognised the principle of judicial co-operation with other jurisdictions and there could be no objection to that principle, but details of the pact would have to be examined. The two governments have been negotiating such a pact since 2000, but the concerns of the Bar Association and Law Society, legal experts and businessmen about the quality of mainland courts has been a major stumbling block. Bar Association vice-chairman Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said it supported the proposed agreement since it was more conservative than earlier proposals and was based on the draft international Hague Convention on mutual recognition enforcement of court judgments. 'The judgment would only be enforceable in either Hong Kong or China if the parties have in their contract expressly provided for a choice of court,' he said. Robert Pe, head of Hong Kong litigation at Paul Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, agreed that the key point in the impending agreement would be 'party autonomy', whereby the agreement would only apply if both parties agreed which court would have jurisdiction in any dispute. 'This appears to be a fairly cautious first step,' Mr Pe said. 'It may lead gradually to Chinese courts getting more exposure to international cases and cases involving international companies, and in that sense it's a good thing, but it certainly won't open the floodgates of judgments to be enforced in each direction.' A Department of Justice spokeswoman said the arrangement's scope 'might be expanded in the light of experience gained in running the initial scheme'. Deputy Solicitor-General Stephen Wong Kai-yi said he expected the agreement to be signed in the next four months. He said 33 basic-level courts on the mainland were among the 100 or so courts whose judgments would be enforceable in Hong Kong. These basic-level courts are in provinces and cities such as Guangdong, Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong , Hebei , Henan , Hubei , Liaoning , Jiangsu , Jilin , Zhejiang and Si-chuan where courts have experience trying commercial cases with foreign elements. Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, a lawmaker for the commercial sector, said the agreement would further entrench Hong Kong's attractiveness as a middleman for foreigners wishing to do business in China.
