CUHK LAW organised the annual Scholarships and Prizes Presentation Ceremony at its Graduate Law Centre on 29 March 2023 to present 121 scholarships and prizes to academically outstanding students and graduates. Over 150 participants attended the ceremony, including donor representatives, students, graduates, families and friends, to congratulate the excellent academic achievements of the recipients.
The Centre for Legal Innovation and Digital Society (CLINDS) at CUHK LAW and the Department of Law, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester (UoM) jointly held the online conference “Digital Platform Governance: Security, Scalability and Sustainability” on 10 January 2023. This conference was part of a larger collaborative project supported by the CUHK-UoM Research Fund.
With the main theme being the legal implications of platform economy and web3, this conference covered topics such as jurisdictions of transnational internet activities, human rights and platforms, governance of the decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs), intellectual property (IP) issues concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and non-fungible token (NFT), etc.
The conference brought together 23 speakers to present on topics related to the conference theme. Among them CUHK LAW Professors Dicky TSANG, Normann WITZLEB and Eliza MIK spoke on the enforcement of foreign intellectual property rights in China, platform liability, and smart contracts respectively. Other speakers and moderators from the Faculty included Dean Lutz-Christian WOLFF, Professors Steven GALLAGHER, Gregory GORDON, Queenie LAI, Jyh-An LEE, and Mr. Ernest SOUTHWORTH. More than 220 online participants comprising academics, legal practitioners, other professionals, alumni and students attended the conference.
On 14 March 2023, CLINDS held the Metaverse Law Conference at the CUHK Graduate Law Centre. The conference was supported by the Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & the Law (TRAIL) of the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law (NUS Law) and KINECT LAW Office.
The Metaverse Law Conference examined emerging issues associated with the metaverse in contract law, property law, media law, intellectual property, data protection, consumer protection and financial law. The Media & Arts Law Review at Melbourne Law School will publish a special symposium issue comprising a selection of papers presented.
This one-day conference gathered 20 speakers to exchange views in four plenary sessions and two panel discussion sessions. Professor Roger BROWNSWORD from The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London, delivered the keynote address. Speakers and moderators from CUHK LAW included Dean Lutz-Christian WOLFF, Professors Gregory GORDON, Stuart HARGREAVES, Jyh-An LEE, Eliza MIK, Normann WITZLEB and Chao XI. Other presenters included Dr. Albert Wai-Kit CHAN (KINECT LAW), Dr. Joseph LEE (Manchester Law School), Professor Kelvin LOW (NUS Law), Professor David TAN (Co-Director, TRAIL, NUS Law), Professor Jeannie PATERSON (Melbourne Law School), Professor Kai von LEWINSKI (University of Passau), and Professor Runhua WANG (University of Science and Technology Beijing).
Learn more about the conference here.
The Greater China Legal History Seminar Series provides a forum to discuss the historical development of a great variety of legal issues of interest in the Greater China region. In 2022-23, the seminar series entered its eighth year and successfully hosted the following six online seminars with more than 2,000 participants:
- “The Legal Protection of Built Heritage in Hong Kong” by Professor Steven GALLAGHER, CUHK LAW
- “Stirling Fessenden: The American Boss of Shanghai 1925 to 1939” by Mr. Douglas CLARK, Solicitor Advocate
- “Civil Disputes in the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.)” by Professor Zhaoyang ZHANG, Department of History, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
- “Between Brutality and Benevolence: The Historical Function of Capital Punishment in China” by Professor Michelle MIAO, CUHK LAW
- “Grounded at Kai-Tak: Chinese Aircraft Impounded in Hong Kong 1949-1952” by Mr. Malcolm MERRY, Barrister
- “Treaty for a Lost City – The Historical Background and Legal Implications of the Joint Declaration” by Professor Chin Leng LIM, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Law, CUHK LAW
Watch and revisit the above seminars on our website or YouTube.
CUHK LAW and the Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers co-organised a Fireside Chat with Women Lawyers on 15 March 2023 at the CUHK Graduate Law Centre. A panel of senior women lawyers (including solicitors, barrister and in-house counsel) shared with our students their experiences in legal careers.
Speakers of this event included Ms. Julianne DOE, President, Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers and Senior Consultant, Dentons, Ms. Willa CHAN, Founder of Willa Legal, Ms. Heidi CHUI, Partner, Stevenson, Wong & Co, Ms. Maria SO, Barrister and Ms. Winnie YEUNG, Chief Legal Counsel, Corporate External and Legal Affairs, Microsoft Greater China Region. Professor Queenie LAI, CUHK LAW Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), gave welcome remarks and Ms. Joyce CHENG, Vice President of Hong Kong Federation of Women Lawyers and Senior Corporate Lawyer of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, moderated the session.
The speakers shared thoughts about challenges faced by female lawyers and exchanged ideas on overcoming stereotypes, biases and breaking the glass ceiling. They also shared their personal experiences including the challenges of founding a law firm, moving from private practice to in-house, challenges of working in a traditionally male-dominated industry (e.g. as a female criminal barrister) and how technology is transforming legal services. At the end of the sharing, there was a Q&A session, followed by a free mingling session where CUHK LAW students had further exchanges with the speakers.
Law has an important function in ensuring that the benefits of technological innovation can be fully harnessed and that burdens are fairly distributed. However, there are diverging views on when technological progress, such as the rise of AI, requires a complete transformation of existing legal frameworks and when cautious adaptation is sufficient. The latter approach acknowledges the almost endless adaptability of law through reinterpretation of existing principles and instruments.
On 12 May 2023, the Obligations Lab Asia of CUHK LAW’s Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law (CCTL) will hold an online conference titled “Transformation or Adaptation? Private Law and New Technologies” with the aim to present and confront views on how private law should be “updated” to meet the challenges arising from novel, technologically-enabled social and commercial practices.
Learn more and register here.
On 20-21 June 2023, the CCTL Transnational Legal History Group will hold the 3rd Asian Legal History Conference at the CUHK Graduate Law Centre in Central. The conference is supported by the Asian Legal History Association. Previous Asian Legal History Conferences have been hosted, organised and supported by the Faculty of Law at Hue University, the Faculty of Law at Thammasat University, the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the National University of Singapore, and CUHK LAW.
The 3rd Asian Legal History Conference aims to bring together a diverse, interdisciplinary group of scholars, researchers and graduate students to share their research findings on topics relating to legal history in Asia. It will be held mixed-mode, including physical and online participation.
Learn more and register here.
To promote the awareness of professional ethics, CUHK LAW organises the 2023 Professional Ethics Student Essay Competition with the sponsorship of the MaMa Charitable Foundation Limited. The competition is open to students enrolled in the CUHK LLB, JD, LLM and PCLL programmes in 2022-23.
The topic of the competition is “Legal professionalism entails more than lawyers acting in their clients’ best interests. Discuss.” The submission deadline is 31 May 2023.
Learn more here.
The CUHK LAW Greater Bay Area (GBA) Forum Seminar Series offers a platform for the exchange of ideas, views and visions amongst academics and members of the legal professions in relation to legal aspects of the GBA. Forthcoming in 2023:
- “Attributing Criminal Liability in the Murky Waters of Self-driving Cars in the GBA” by Professor Michelle MIAO on 29 May. (Register now!)
- “Preventing Illicit Trade in China’s Cultural Heritage in the Greater Bay Area by Harmonizing Policy and Law” by Professor Steven GALLAGHER on 6 September.
- “Corporate Compliance in the GBA” by Professor Chao XI on 8 November.
Professor David DONALD, our emeritus professor, has recently been appointed by the Hawai’i Judiciary to direct its Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution (CADR). CADR is a cadre of talented professionals working to make conflict management broadly available to Hawai’i citizens and agencies of state and local government. In particular CADR administers the Hawai’i Appellate Mediation Program, manages the Judiciary’s purchase of service contracts with the community mediation centers for mediation services, and provides ADR-related training to state and county employees.
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligence & the Law (LLB elective)
This course introduces students to current applications of AI in law and business in a thought-provoking way and encourages students to develop a broad and multifaceted philosophy of how AI, law and society co-exist. It also looks at the impact of AI in specific areas of law, including contract, criminal, finance, intellectual property and torts.
- CISG – the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (LLB elective)
CISG: Law and Practice (JD elective)
These courses equip students with a sound/advanced understanding of the CISG and its theoretical and practical implications thus preparing them for legal work related to international trade.
- Digital Technology and Law (LLB elective)
Principles of Digital Technology and Law (JD elective)
These courses provide an introduction to the interaction of digital technology and law. They will provide students with an overview of the issues that digital technology has raised in the main practice areas of law including contract, crime, corporate governance, death, divorce, insolvency and regulation.
- The Law of the Digital Economy (LLM elective)
This course intends to provide a “one-stop shop” for students wishing to acquire a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory challenges surrounding by the digital economy, and how those challenges affect the legal landscape of Hong Kong and Mainland China. It adopts a global and comparative perspective.
- Contract Law in Changing Times: Asian Perspectives on Pacta Sunt Servanda (Routledge, 2023) edited by Professor Normann WITZLEB.
- The Timing of Guilty Pleas: Lessons from Common Law Jurisdictions (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Professor Kevin CHENG.
- Routledge Handbook of Asian Parliaments (Routledge, 2023) co-edited by Professor Rehan ABEYRATNE.
- ‘AI restoration brings “dying” masterpieces back to life, but tricks copyright?’ in the International Journal of Law and Information Technology (Oxford University Press) by CUHK LAW PhD student Yangzi LI.
- ‘Labor Control, Resistance, and the Advent of “Development”: Modalities of Governance in the British Empire, c. 1926-1940’ in the Minnesota Journal of International Law by Professor Christopher ROBERTS.
- “Strategic Litigation in Wartime: Judging the Russian Invasion of Ukraine through the Genocide Convention” in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law by Professor Michael RAMSDEN.
- “Serious Sex Offences in England and Wales: defending the indefensible” in Kilean, Dowds and McAlinden (eds), Sexual Violence on Trial; Local and Comparative Perspectives (Routledge, 2023) co-authored by Professor Luke MARSH.
- “Legal Institutions of Human Capital: Property, Contract, and Organisation” in Journal of the Knowledge Economy co-authored by Professor Jyh-An LEE.
- “China’s Emerging Hydrogen Economy: Policies, Institutions, Actors” (RIFS Potsdam, 2023) co-authored by Dr. Xiaohan GONG and Professor Anatole BOUTE.
- “Formulating Copyright Damages in China” in the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. by Professor Jyh-An LEE.
- “FinTech-Bank Partnership in China’s Credit Market: Models, Risks and Regulatory Responses” in the European Business Organization Law Review co-authored by Professor Robin Hui HUANG.
- “Reputational Sanctions as A Self-regulatory Tool of China’s Stock Exchanges: Recent Developments of the Law and Practice” in the Securities Regulation Law Journal by Professor Robin Hui HUANG.
- “Collective Legalization as a Strategic Function of the UN General Assembly in Responding to Human Rights Violations” in the Wisconsin International Law Journal by Professor Michael RAMSDEN.
- “ChatGPT by OpenAI: The End of Litigation Lawyers?” by CUHK LAW JD graduate Kwan Yuen IU and PCLL student Vanessa Man-Yi WONG.
- “Legal and Institutional Impediments to Sharing Economy: Case of Uber’s Non-Uptake in Hong Kong” in the Asian Journal of Law and Economics by CUHK LAW JD graduates Kwan Yuen IU and Paul CHEUK.
- “獨立董事的法律義務與責任追究 : 國際經驗與中國方案 (The Duties and Liabilities of Independent Directors: International Experiences and Suggestions for China)” in 中外法學 (Peking University Law Journal) by Professor Robin Hui HUANG.
- “Internationally Driven, but Domestically Aware, Legislation in Troubled Times: The First Copyright Statute in China” in The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law (Oxford University Press) by Professor Jyh-An LEE and CUHK LAW PhD student Yangzi LI.
- Mr. Matthew CHEUNG was awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
- CUHK LAW LLB student SIU Ngo Kenneth won the 2022 Law for Change Student Competition.
- CUHK LAW Team advanced to Quarter-final Round and awarded Second Honourable Submission for Prosecutor Memorial in the 21st Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot.
Calvin CHENG | Hong Kong (JD 2010, PCLL 2011)
Partner, Yung, Yu, Yuen & Co.
“Having grown up overseas, I was clueless of the legal industry as I entered as part of the 3rd cohort of the CUHK JD Programme. My aim was to pursue a working career in Hong Kong (legal or not) and the CUHK JD Programme was my guide into Hong Kong. I was very fortunate to be given an opportunity to begin my legal career with Mayer Brown (then Mayer Brown JSM) where I qualified into their Insurance Litigation Department.
After spending 7 years at Mayer Brown, I moved to my present firm Yung, Yu, Yuen & Co. to expand my practice to other areas to become a general practitioner. At the same time, I became more involved with the Law Society of Hong Kong (“LSHK”) and was first elected as a Council member of the LSHK in 2019. Through being a Council member, I have taken in the history and have been exposed to the structure of the LSHK and am fascinated but at the same time saddened by the development of the legal profession over the years.
As a profession, our reputation comes from our duty to assist those in need of legal help and in turn the quality of which we provide our legal service is what upkeeps our reputation. However, what I have seen is a lack of drive for quality and a destructive drive to the bottom to snatch business by undercutting fees. In my perspective, this has been very detrimental to our legal profession. Whilst we do still have those that are keen in maintaining quality (in turn our reputation), the entire legal profession is not together on this.
I hope that, for the future generations of lawyers, we can stay strongly connected within our legal industry – with your classmates, and in the future, with your colleagues, learned friends, etc. By staying connected, we can all make the legal profession better.”
Jang SAE-PANG | Hong Kong (PCLL 2010)
Senior Managing Associate, Bird & Bird
“In the morning of 15 February 2023, our son joined us as a new family member.”
Congratulations to you and your family, Jang!
Wency YU | Beijing (JD 2008)
Partner, Anjie Broad Law Firm
“On November of 2022, my former law firm Broad & Bright merged with Beijing Anjie Law Firm, forming Anjie Broad Law Firm. This is the largest law firm merger in China in the past decade. My recent achievements include: (a) being recognized as a world-leading trademark lawyer in 2023 by World Trademark Review; (b) being a finalist for the Women in Business Law Awards APAC 2022 – Trademark Lawyer of the Year, organized by Managing IP, and (c) receiving the China-Japan Trademark Contribution Award in 2022. In terms of my recent and prominent experience in legal representation, I successfully represented a client in a retrial for a criminal case involving trade secret infringement, resulting in a decision to remand the case. This particular case has been widely acknowledged as the first trade secret criminal case in the province, and is the only one case remanded in that province in 2022.”
Share with us any updates (e.g. life stories, good news, career achievements) by email to law.alumni@cuhk.edu.hk.
On 16 March 2023, our Adjunct Associate Professor Anne SCULLY-JOHNSON gave CUHK LAW alumni an overview of trends and challenges in family mediation in England and a comparison of its Hong Kong counterpart. The seminar also explored what makes ‘magic’ to happen in the mediation room that allows warring clients to come to a resolution with which they can all live.
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