When a tourist tried to pay for a burger in cash at a Tsim Sha Tsui restaurant in 2023, staff refused. The outlet accepted only cards and electronic wallets. The episode went viral, with debate raging over whether or not this is legal. After all, Hong Kong bank notes and coins constitute legal tender in…
Hong Kong social welfare authorities have classified baby Danny as a “high-risk” child and recommended he remain in protective care, while Sweden has moved to permanently transfer custody of his elder sister Lily to a foster family, according to the children’s parents. The developments come ahead of a hearing at the West Kowloon Juvenile Court…
The recent enactment of the Safeguarding National Security (Procedural Matters) Regulation has generated significant interest and commentary on Hong Kong’s legal landscape. It is recognised that maintaining national security is of paramount importance and that there is a constitutional responsibility on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to do so. Under the Basic Law, that…
The Hong Kong government has launched a public consultation on the city’s first five-year development plan, a blueprint aimed at aligning with China’s newly approved 15th five-year plan. Officials have promised a “macroscopic, strategic and forward-looking” road map that will guide Hong Kong’s economic and social development for the rest of this decade. That invitation…
Hong Kong’s leader has pledged to exercise prudence and seriousness when defining national security offences under newly proposed legislation, dismissing concerns about a centralisation of power and stressing that the process often involves “state players” and highly sensitive information. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu also said on Tuesday that the subsidiary legislation, which introduces a…
It is very often said that the common law is one of Hong Kong’s greatest assets. It provides us with a corpus of law which shares common origins with those of many established jurisdictions. It enables conversations to take place between our legal professionals and with our counterparts elsewhere. As the only common law jurisdiction…
A Hong Kong construction worker has been remanded in custody pending sentencing after pleading guilty to tossing 59 pieces of paper bearing seditious messages from his public rental flat in 2024 and last year. Raymond Wong Chan-fai, 55, was detained on Thursday morning by police’s National Security Department. He was escorted to West Kowloon Court…
When Law Yin-ping moved into a village house in Yick Yuen Tsuen, Hung Shui Kiu, in northwest Hong Kong more than a decade ago with her granddaughters, it never crossed her mind that they could one day be homeless – and forcibly separated. The Tuen Mun village falls within the government’s planned Hung Shui Kiu/Ha…
The Hong Kong Bar Association has proposed criminalising bid-rigging by introducing a “double-track” approach to the Competition Ordinance, describing it as a quick fix to increase deterrence and encourage more whistle-blowers to expose industry malpractice following the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Under the current civil regime established in 2015, the ordinance only punishes individuals…
Congratulations to Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po for getting the city’s budget to sail through the Legislative Council. It wasn’t always such smooth sailing and Chan would do well to acknowledge as much. When Chan was first given the keys to the city’s coffers, they were full. Successive financial secretaries faced political pressure of a…