It’s time to reconcile one country, two legal systems

However, the need for greater cooperation between the two systems and the agencies responsible for operating them is growing. Increasingly, legal disputes on one side of the border have consequences on the other. Initiatives such as the central government’s ambitious belt and road infrastructure project will require the mainland system to interact more and more with courts elsewhere, including those in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, cross-border crime poses new challenges for the city’s law enforcement agencies and those on the mainland, making greater cooperation essential. A recent conference in Xian focused on mutual legal assistance between the mainland and Hong Kong in civil and commercial matters. In his speech at that conference, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung recognised the need to strengthen such cooperation. Since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, agreements have been struck on the mutual service of judicial documents, mutual enforcement of arbitral awards and mutual enforcement of judgments. In March, a further arrangement concerning the mutual taking of evidence came into operation.