Interpreting Hong Kong’s Basic Law

On July 1, 2007, Hong Kong celebrated its tenth anniversary as a special administrative region of China.  It also marked the first decade of its unique constitutional order in which Hong Kong courts continue to apply and develop the common law but the power of final interpretation of the constitution lies with the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.  This book is a collection of chapters by leading constitutional law experts in Hong Kong who examine the interpretive issues and conflicts which have arisen since 1997.  Intervention by China in constitutional interpretation has been restrained but each intervention has had significant political and jurisprudential impact.  The authors give varied assessments of the struggle for interpretive coherence in the coming decade.

Fu Hualing, LLB (Southwestern University of Politics and Law) MA (Toronto), D Juri (Osgood Hall) is Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong. He teaches and researches on issues relating to human rights in China and legal relations between Hong Kong and Mainland China.  
 
Lison Harris was Assistant Research Officer in the Centre for Comparative and Public Law. She now works in the Department of Justice of New Zealand.
 
Simon NM Young, BArtsSc(McMaster), LLB(Toronto), LLM(Cantab) is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong.  He is also Deputy Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law, University of Hong Kong.  Young was a prosecutor in Canada before coming to Hong Kong University where he has taught criminal law, evidence, legal aspects of white collar crime, and rights and remedies in the criminal process.  He is currently completing his pupillage to qualify as a Hong Kong barrister.  His works in constitutional law include editor of the Hong Kong Basic Law Bibliography, co-editor of a book on national security laws in Hong Kong, pioneering research on Hong Kong’s functional constituencies, and other publications on Hong Kong’s human rights system, anti-terrorism laws and the right to vote.

Introduction * PART I: INTERPRETING HONG KONG’S BASIC LAW * Legislative History, Original Intent, and the Interpretation of the Basic Law–Simon NM Young * Embracing Universal Standards?  The Role of International Human Rights Treaties in Hong Kong’s Constitutional Jurisprudence–Carole J Petersen * Constitutionalism in the Shadow of the Common Law:  The Dysfunctional Interpretive Politics of Article 8 of the Hong Kong Basic Law–Mike Dowdle * Interpreting Constitutionalism and Democratisation in Hong Kong–Michael Davis * Forcing the Dance: Interpreting the Hong Kong Basic Law–Robert Morris * PART II: CROSSING THE BORDER * The Political Economy of Interpretation–Yash Ghai * One Term, Two Interpretations: The Justifications and the Future of Basic Law Interpretation–Lin Feng and PY Lo * Rethinking Judicial Reference: Barricades at the Gateway?–PY Lo * Formalism and Commitment in Hong Kong’s Constitutional Development–Yu Xingzhong * PART III: LEGISLATIVE INTERPRETATION AND THE PRC CONSTITUTION * Legislative Interpretation by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee: a Power with Roots in the Stalinist Conception of Law–Sophia Woodman * Of Iron or Rubber? People’s Deputies of Hong Kong to the National People’s Congress–Fu Hualing and DW Choy * China’s Constitutionalism–Lison Harris