https://www.scmp.com/rss/267285/feed Michael C. Davis is professor of law and international affairs at the O.P. Jindal Global University in India and a resident fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre in Washington, DC. A professor in the Law Faculty at the University of Hong Kong until late 2016, he continues as a non-resident senior fellow in the university’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com There is no way to sugarcoat it. Hong Kong’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to protect basic rights and maintain the rule of law have been sharply condemned by the United Nations’ leading expert body on human rights. The national security law and so-called electoral reforms fail to comply with multiple requirements of this covenant. As a human rights professor who has taught the subject in Hong Kong for over 30 years, I have never seen such a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3187157/why-hong-kong-should-heed-un-condemnation-its-failure-protect-basic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3187157/why-hong-kong-should-heed-un-condemnation-its-failure-protect-basic?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Aug 2022 01:30:18 +0000 While media coverage has focused mostly on the lengthy nine-year sentence handed Leon Tong Ying-kit before three designated judges this week, more worrying is the analysis within the verdict. Human rights and the rule of law clearly took a dramatic step backwards in that judgment, convicting Tong of inciting secession with no mention of human rights and of terrorism with little regard for his causing popular fear. A third charge related to grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving was not... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143634/national-security-trial-ruling-setback-human-rights-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3143634/national-security-trial-ruling-setback-human-rights-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Aug 2021 20:00:16 +0000 When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor backed her education secretary to claim there was no separation of powers in Hong Kong, she was clearly trying to voice a view pleasing to mainland officials, but the stand she took made no sense and was self-contradictory. She reportedly argued that the three branches of the Hong Kong government had a division of work, with each having “their respective responsibilities”, “but there are also checks and balances among them”. She seemingly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3100499/carrie-lams-stance-separation-powers-hong-kong-self-contradictory?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3100499/carrie-lams-stance-separation-powers-hong-kong-self-contradictory?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Sep 2020 20:30:06 +0000 I cry for Hong Kong. At a time when citizens worldwide are marching against racism, people are protesting because they recognise America is not alone in its racial disparities. They see that the problems of injustice in all its forms are widespread. For this reason, the wider world may also cry for Hong Kong. One year ago, a million protesters took to the streets in Hong Kong’s cry for justice, for its “high degree of autonomy” to be protected. A week later, 2 million joined their cause, and yet... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088467/chinas-national-security-law-why-are-elite-assigned-defend-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088467/chinas-national-security-law-why-are-elite-assigned-defend-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jun 2020 22:30:09 +0000 With the expected passage of the National People’s Congress resolution on national security this week, mainland and Hong Kong officials assure us that the proposed law will be narrowly drafted and pose no threat to basic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong. This assurance should be doubted. The claim that public officials are reliable people who will only go after the bad guys underlies the People’s Republic of China’s tradition of rule by law. It presumes that a society of laws is one... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086269/will-hong-kongs-rule-law-survive-challenge-beijings-national?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086269/will-hong-kongs-rule-law-survive-challenge-beijings-national?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 May 2020 01:00:07 +0000 The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the central government’s liaison office have over the past week proclaimed their independence from Basic Law constraints. The HKMAO and the liaison office specifically claim not to be bound by Basic Law Article 22’s limitations on interference in Hong Kong affairs. The Hong Kong office of China’s Foreign Ministry supported this position. They never quite explain how the offices, which the Hong Kong government repeatedly said were set up in accordance... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081090/controversy-over-role-beijings-offices-hong-kong-shows-weight-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081090/controversy-over-role-beijings-offices-hong-kong-shows-weight-one?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Apr 2020 22:30:15 +0000 How should we understand the ever-escalating violence, as the protests have lasted for 20 weeks, and where should we look for a solution that might bring the protests to a satisfactory end? The historic effectiveness of non-violent protests in Hong Kong has largely depended on who is calling the shots, Hong Kong or Beijing. This same issue, which relates to the sufficiency of Hong Kong’s autonomy, is where a solution to the ongoing protests must be found. Looking back at the many protests in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033928/democratic-reform-best-way-protect-hong-kongs-autonomy-and-halt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033928/democratic-reform-best-way-protect-hong-kongs-autonomy-and-halt?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2019 22:15:06 +0000 As the extradition bill saga unwinds, Hong Kong officials and Beijing’s representatives have again proved clueless as to what the rule of law means. They appear to imagine that it merely means following the dictates of government rendered in some legal form. Last Thursday, the director of the central government’s liaison office, Wang Zhimin, in his first public comments since protests erupted against the now-suspended extradition bill, compared the rule of law to air and water. Chief Executive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3018866/far-forsaking-hong-kongs-rule-law-extradition-bill-protesters-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3018866/far-forsaking-hong-kongs-rule-law-extradition-bill-protesters-are?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jul 2019 04:00:15 +0000 With the extradition bill, Hong Kong finds itself in another of its long parade of crises. If these crises have one thing in common, it is that they are all self-inflicted. The first of these, the 2003 Article 23 protests, was a case where the Hong Kong government was trying to please Beijing by offering up a totally unnecessary bill on national security. Half a million Hong Kong protesters thought otherwise. More than a decade has since passed and no threats have come to light that existing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014799/hong-kongs-extradition-protests-are-yet-another-crisis-governments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014799/hong-kongs-extradition-protests-are-yet-another-crisis-governments?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Jun 2019 23:00:09 +0000 Is Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” model a sand castle that can simply be washed away when China gets fed up with it?  While the answer may be “yes” as a matter of sheer power, it is clearly “no” both as a legal matter and as a common-sense political commitment. Liaison office legal chief tells Hong Kong: Basic Law is not a constitution There is no question, given Hong Kong’s location, that Beijing could pretty much do as it pleases in Hong Kong. One doubts anything more than... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2159816/chinas-hard-line-hong-kong-only-undermines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2159816/chinas-hard-line-hong-kong-only-undermines?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Aug 2018 21:02:38 +0000 Last Thursday may qualify as one of the darkest days in Hong Kong’s history. The tragedy of young civic activists being dragged off to jail is bad enough. The political symbolism of Hong Kong’s three “faces of democracy,” being thrown in jail is even more telling. It is as if Hong Kong’s civil society is being jailed. One can only wonder what the Department of Justice was thinking in pushing the courts to lock up so far 16 of Hong Kong’s dedicated young men and women, over moments of excessive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107915/hong-kongs-young-faces-democracy-jail-civil-society-being?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107915/hong-kongs-young-faces-democracy-jail-civil-society-being?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Aug 2017 08:24:13 +0000 Having spent the past couple of months in America as a visiting democracy fellow, I have been struck by the huge gap in perception between progressive Americans on the left and Donald Trump’s supporters on the right. A similar divide was evident over Brexit in the UK last summer and has been lifting its ugly head in elections in France and Italy. Such gaps have appeared in the past – from Carter to Reagan, from Bush to Obama – but somehow the institutions of democracy eventually work to moderate... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2055991/how-hong-kongs-next-chief-executive-can-help-kill-talk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2055991/how-hong-kongs-next-chief-executive-can-help-kill-talk?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Dec 2016 05:37:07 +0000 It is time to get realistic over the South China Sea arbitral decision. Chinese officials and their supporters have made this case out to be some gross overreaching by the arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. A better view is that the tribunal properly exposed some serious violations that China ought to correct both for its own reputation and for the sake of the natural environment. At the same time, it offered a platform for negotiating a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1991371/why-beijing-should-seek-damage-control-following-south-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1991371/why-beijing-should-seek-damage-control-following-south-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Jul 2016 10:00:30 +0000 Hong Kong is increasingly locked in a perception gap that has come to colour nearly every aspect of political life. National People’s Congress chairman Zhang Dejiang (張德江 ) and other Chinese leaders have taken to lecturing Hong Kong on maintaining the rule of law. We are told “street politics could tarnish Hong Kong’s image”. The implication is that protests are the primary threat to the rule of law. The reasoning involves a mainland version of constitutionalism and the associated rule of law... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1925805/rule-law-needs-more-lip-service-survive-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1925805/rule-law-needs-more-lip-service-survive-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Mar 2016 05:47:31 +0000 Zhang Xiaoming , head of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, caused quite a stir when he proclaimed that the city's executive-led government does not have separation of powers and that the chief executive is superior to the other two branches of government. He claimed that having three branches of government - the executive, legislative and judiciary - with each checking and balancing the other, did not amount to separation of powers. He also doubted separation of powers could... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1859296/separation-powers-already-fact-life-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1859296/separation-powers-already-fact-life-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Sep 2015 03:24:04 +0000 A lot of recent attention has focused on Hong Kong pan-democrats and what they should do after their failed attempt to secure democracy. This attention might be better focused on the Beijing and Hong Kong governments. Last week's Legislative Council vote was a disastrous end to a nearly two-year campaign to push through alleged democratic reform. Soul-searching by our top officials is clearly needed. While opinion polls seemed to suggest equal support for and opposition to the bill, in fact,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1826703/reform-failure-should-prod-hong-kong-leaders-step-defenders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1826703/reform-failure-should-prod-hong-kong-leaders-step-defenders?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jun 2015 04:30:14 +0000 The Hong Kong government has lately had great difficulty understanding what autonomy is and what its responsibilities are for the high degree of autonomy provided under the Basic Law. In last summer's white paper, Beijing admonished us that a "high degree of autonomy is not full autonomy". In his policy address, the chief executive, following Beijing's line, argued that the protester's slogan of "Hong Kong shall resolve Hong Kong's problems" violated the constitution. The protests in Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1682865/hong-kongs-right-resolve-its-own-problems-provided-law-lost?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1682865/hong-kongs-right-resolve-its-own-problems-provided-law-lost?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jan 2015 09:20:54 +0000 Looking out at "Umbrella Square" the morning after the clearance, with cars humming by and workers scraping the last remnants of the yellow stickers off the adjoining government buildings, one may ask: how significant was this Occupy protest and, what next? This was the place where the best of Hong Kong youth spoke truth to power and where they built a city on the paved highway. Last Thursday, power spoke back as the Hong Kong government hauled away our youthful leaders, several elected... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1662934/post-occupy-will-government-speak-hong-kong-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1662934/post-occupy-will-government-speak-hong-kong-people?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Dec 2014 07:47:37 +0000 As court orders, followed by more aggressive police tactics, seek to clear the streets in Mong Kok and Admiralty, the non-violent civil disobedience campaign in Hong Kong has reached a climax. For two months, the protesters have impressed the world with their peaceful sit-ins. Allegations that they are undermining the rule of law have met with scepticism. In this moment of difficulty, we should not lose sight of the fact that primary responsibility for maintaining the rule of law rests with the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1653389/hong-kong-government-must-face-responsibilities-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1653389/hong-kong-government-must-face-responsibilities-human-rights?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Dec 2014 20:15:00 +0000 A small group of lawyers has added to the chorus of establishment figures denouncing the Occupy movement as undermining the rule of law. Are they right? As the protests stretch well into their second month, we are hearing increasing calls for them to end. Some of these are calls of prudence, suggesting withdrawal and alternative strategies to promote the protesters' cause. On the other side, officials and now a small group of establishment lawyers have accused protesters engaged in civil... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1634329/occupy-protests-breaking-law-not-undermining-hong-kongs-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1634329/occupy-protests-breaking-law-not-undermining-hong-kongs-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Nov 2014 09:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong protesters have recently been under attack by prominent Beijing officials and the state media for allegedly violating the rule of law and for making democracy proposals that are said to violate the Basic Law. At the same time, government representatives, in discussions with student protest leaders, have emphasised that any talks to resolve the demonstrations must be based on the Basic Law. The implication of this insistence is that the protest leaders oppose the city's... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1615828/real-threat-rule-law-lies-npcs-reform-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1615828/real-threat-rule-law-lies-npcs-reform-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Oct 2014 20:33:12 +0000 Hong Kong people and the media are surely wondering whether anything positive can come out of the proposed democracy negotiations. With the National People's Congress Standing Committee decision effectively denying universal suffrage and the protesters demanding both civil nominations and international standards, the government is between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The protesters are no better off in seemingly asking for what is widely believed to be impossible. Few people expect... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1612921/talks-between-protesters-and-government-must-proceed-basis?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1612921/talks-between-protesters-and-government-must-proceed-basis?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Oct 2014 09:15:30 +0000 Beijing's decision on universal suffrage marks a dark day in Hong Kong history. The shortcutting of its firm commitments in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law signals a broken trust. Both sides have long struggled in their arranged marriage, agreed on in the Joint Declaration and sanctified in the solemn vows of the Basic Law. By requiring a majority vote in a highly unrepresentative 1,200-member pro-Beijing nominating committee, the central government is effectively blocking... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1584488/beijing-has-failed-honour-its-promise-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1584488/beijing-has-failed-honour-its-promise-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:00:00 +0000 Reading between the lines of the consultation report and Leung Chun-ying's report to the National People's Congress Standing Committee, it seems clear that the government has all but decided in favour of a non-democratic model for the chief executive election. Long-expressed establishment-camp positions are given the veneer of public support. With considerable cheek, the government has ticked the boxes in favour of nearly all establishment-camp positions. First, we are told the "mainstream... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1555348/public-opinion-hijacked-leungs-electoral-reform-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1555348/public-opinion-hijacked-leungs-electoral-reform-report?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Jul 2014 06:45:15 +0000 What is the purpose of Beijing's white paper on Hong Kong? Some argue that it is issuing a warning to unruly protesters. Others assert that this is nothing more than a progress report on "one country, two systems". A careful reading of the text suggests, rather, an overriding purpose to say forcefully that Beijing is in charge. What will this mean for Hong Kong's rule of law? Most striking in the report is the dramatic change of tone from 30 years earlier. When the Sino-British Joint Declaration... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1531714/white-paper-beijing-may-have-achieved-opposite-what-it-wants?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1531714/white-paper-beijing-may-have-achieved-opposite-what-it-wants?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Jun 2014 19:03:07 +0000 As the consultation over the method for selecting the chief executive in 2017 comes to an end, there is a need to evaluate various proposals. Much of the discussion has focused on what Beijing will or will not accept. This ignores too much the standards that should be applied, as laid out in the Basic Law. The focus on Beijing's intentions is understandable; political compromise will certainly be part of this debate. But discussion of compromise should not neglect Basic Law requirements. Any... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1499879/strike-middle-path-hong-kongs-electoral-reform-2017?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1499879/strike-middle-path-hong-kongs-electoral-reform-2017?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Apr 2014 10:30:00 +0000 Dear chief secretary, considering your frequent calls that proposals for nomination of the chief executive conform to the Basic Law, and mindful that the Basic Law also requires conformity to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, I offer the following proposal. It seeks to adhere to the guiding human rights principles, offered by an expert international panel at the University of Hong Kong last week. And it seeks to reconcile views from both sides of the political... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1456235/middle-way-electing-next-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1456235/middle-way-electing-next-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Mar 2014 10:15:15 +0000 Mainland and local officials and establishment politicians have been subjecting Hong Kong to a barrage of statements about what universal suffrage under the Basic Law is not or does not include. Among the catalogue of "nos", we are told universal suffrage is not direct election, does not include civil nominations and is not to be done by a simple threshold of nominators in the nominating committee but by the committee as a whole. It also does not include someone confrontational to the central... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1434253/universal-suffrage-naysayers-have-no-legal-leg-stand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1434253/universal-suffrage-naysayers-have-no-legal-leg-stand?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:15:45 +0000 The government has argued that civic and party nominations of chief executive election candidates being promoted by the democratic camp are contrary to the Basic Law. Both the chief secretary and the secretary for justice have based this view on what they argue is the plain meaning of the Basic Law text. This commitment to the meaning of the text is admirable but we may ask whether the government is prepared to take account of the full text. Article 45 says: "The method of selecting the chief... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1420717/governments-commitment-basic-law-text-cannot-be-selective?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1420717/governments-commitment-basic-law-text-cannot-be-selective?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Feb 2014 10:15:00 +0000 It has become increasingly apparent that Hong Kong needs to find its voice on the road to universal suffrage or risk a calamitous imposition of an undemocratic model by Beijing. It became clear, during the weekend visit of Li Fei, the chairman of the Basic Law Committee, that the mainland is bent on seizing control over electoral reform in ways that may go well beyond Basic Law requirements. Hong Kong people will surely select candidates who can represent their interest The chairman of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1365398/hong-kong-government-must-not-blindly-follow-electoral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1365398/hong-kong-government-must-not-blindly-follow-electoral?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Nov 2013 11:00:45 +0000 Condemnation has recently been hurled at the Occupy Central movement, accusing its organisers of setting out to foment turmoil. Critics argue that their proposed civil disobedience will damage Hong Kong and warn of the potential for the central government to step in. Make no mistake; if non-violent protest is judged to have caused turmoil, responsibility will lie on the government's shoulders. When government fails to keep constitutional commitments, responsibility for non-violent protest lies... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1359573/government-will-have-only-itself-blame-occupy-central-turmoil?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1359573/government-will-have-only-itself-blame-occupy-central-turmoil?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:15:45 +0000 In recent weeks we have seen heightened sensitivity to seemingly innocuous comments made by US and British officials about Hong Kong's political development. Clifford Hart, the new US consul general, met local politicians and expressed support for "genuine democratic suffrage". British Foreign Office minister Hugo Swire likewise stressed the need for "genuine choice". Each carefully backed fundamental democratic principles that are guaranteed in the Basic Law, without endorsing any parties or... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1321557/outsiders-try-help-hong-kong-beijing-and-its-local-backers-protest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1321557/outsiders-try-help-hong-kong-beijing-and-its-local-backers-protest?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Following the 120th Tibetan self-immolation in protest at Beijing's alleged autonomy policies, Hong Kong people - themselves the subject of autonomy guarantees - may wonder why ordinary Tibetans are so dissatisfied. On the face of it, Beijing and the exiled Tibetan leaders should be able to find a solution. In the 1951 Seventeen-Point Agreement, sometimes considered a precursor to the Hong Kong agreement, Beijing promised Tibetans could carry on under their traditional self-rule - with Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1292872/tibetan-autonomy-poses-questions-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1292872/tibetan-autonomy-poses-questions-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Is Hong Kong's autonomy model in crisis? It certainly seems a timely question to ask. Opinion polls tell us that more than 35 per cent of Hongkongers hold negative feelings towards mainlanders and both the central and local governments; British colonial flags have reappeared, democratic reform has been delayed, and the city's residents cannot even commemorate June 4 without a fight over patriotism. Hong Kong's "one country, two systems" model is one of the most extraordinary efforts in the world... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1268114/strong-defence-autonomy-needed-two-systems-work?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1268114/strong-defence-autonomy-needed-two-systems-work?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Kong appears on the verge of a constitutional crisis, launched when chairman of the National People's Congress Law Committee Qiao Xiaoyang proclaimed that candidates for chief executive in the promised universal suffrage must "love the country, love Hong Kong" and must not "confront the central government". He suggested screening candidates. Qiao's criteria are widely interpreted as aiming to bar members of Hong Kong's pan-democratic camp from running for chief executive. Backing him up,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1215483/screening-not-way-love-china-love-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1215483/screening-not-way-love-china-love-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The American constitutional scholar Alexander Bickel noted that government actions and judicial decisions have two effects: an immediate, intended, practical effect and a perhaps unintended bearing on values of a more general and permanent interest. In the right-of-abode saga, the government has argued that as a litigant it can make use of all available legal tactics - just like a private party in court. But unlike a private litigant, the government has the added burden of defending our legal... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1177264/government-says-its-just-ordinary-litigant-think-again?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1177264/government-says-its-just-ordinary-litigant-think-again?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Eleven years after the unanimous Court of Final Appeal decision in the Chong Fung-yuen case granting Hong Kong residency to children born in Hong Kong of mainland parents, and more than 196,000 such births later, the government has made its most comprehensive move yet to address our overcrowded maternity wards and the follow-on surge in school enrolment. Last week, in the right of abode case brought by domestic helper Evangeline Banao Vallejos, the government suggested to the top court that it... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1107112/npc-interpretation-not-answer-hong-kongs-immigration?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1107112/npc-interpretation-not-answer-hong-kongs-immigration?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000