CHINESE JURISPRUDENCE AND HONG KONG LAW

Kam C. Wong, Xavier University

Abstract

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong, a colony (euphemistically called dependent territory) of Britain, was returned to the fold of the motherland, China, as a Special Administration Region (SAR), with a high degree of autonomy. Ten years on, we find that the common law system established by the British in Hong Kong, as guaranteed by the Basic law, survived and thrived. A cursory review of legal and social science literature shows that there is little scholarly discourse or public debate on the proper jurisprudential standards to be applied in the making and evaluating Hong Kong legislation. This research raises a most fundamental policy qua jurisprudential issue: should Hong Kong law be formulated, applied or evaluated with indigenous legal standards and local jurisprudential principles, based on Asian values, Chinese culture and/or Hong Kong ethos? In so doing, this article questions the appropriateness and challenges the legitimacy of adopting Western jurisprudential principles in shaping and evaluating Hong Kong legal system, especially after July 1, 1997.