Hong Kong’s successful hosting of an international legal summit for the first time this week has served as a “vote of confidence” in the city’s law profession, according to the head of the Bar Association.
Victor Dawes hailed the completion of the fourth global conference for the International Advocacy Training Council on Tuesday evening, an event which the city hosted following a four-year delay brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s a vote of confidence. It goes to show that they trust the professional members of the legal profession [in Hong Kong],” he said.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The council is a global charitable organisation registered in Hong Kong that focuses on advocacy training and promotion among common law jurisdictions. The organisation held its first international conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2014.
This year’s summit drew about 100 legal professionals from various jurisdictions including the United Kingdom, Malaysia, South Africa and mainland China.
“It’s like seeing old friends,” Dawes said. “Although it was adjourned, although there are events that moved elsewhere, there was never any doubt that they would come back to Hong Kong.”
Dawes said the summit’s unique appeal was that the event drew “highly specialised advocates” of “high standing” to the city, including both serving and retired judges from abroad.
Keynote speakers included Justice Secretary Paul Lam Ting-kwok, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung and former top judge Geoffrey Ma Tao-li.
Jonathan Chang, chairman of the Hong Kong Advocacy Training Council, the training arm of the Bar Association which organised the summit, said the event was centred on arbitration advocacy, which highlighted Hong Kong’s growing role as a hub for the field.
The conference included a section devoted to the growing number of arbitration opportunities on the mainland, he said.
Chang also said the event was important as attendees could pass on their findings about the city to their local organisations afterwards.
“Coming here is always better because they will then be able to see for themselves what’s happening,” he said.
In a keynote speech for the event, justice minister Lam said that maintaining the rule of law in Hong Kong was important to the success of the city, which was facing various challenges linked to factors such as the complex geopolitical situation.
“Hong Kong’s success in the past and in the future depended and will depend very much on whether we can maintain and enhance our rule of law, both as a matter of perception and as a matter of reality.
“As the secretary for justice, it is my duty and I have given my words that I will do my best to defend and promote the rule of law in Hong Kong,” he said.
Avoid ‘chilling effect’ by clarifying security law: Hong Kong Bar Association
Lam also stressed that the city needed the trust, confidence and support of “friends from overseas who share the same common core values”.
Hong Kong provided an ideal place for international arbitration cases, given the common law system it had kept under the “one country, two systems” governing principle and its high-quality legal services, the minister said.
Lam said Hong Kong had been consistently voted the top five preferred seats for arbitration globally since 2015.
The Hong Kong Advocacy Training Council administered 184 of the 281 arbitration filings it received last year, he noted.
‘Strong bar’ in Hong Kong enables independent judiciary, association head says
The minister also mentioned the city’s plans to host a string of high-profile legal summits in the coming months.
Hong Kong is set to hold the 26th International Council for Commercial Arbitration Congress, the world’s largest arbitration conference that takes place every two years, from May 5 to 8.
The city will also welcome the 11th International Association of Prosecutors Regional Conference in November.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Foreign chambers in Hong Kong take wait-and-see approach to new security law while local groups expect business as usual
- Hong Kong Bar Association calls for clearer provisions in home-grown national security law, warns of ‘chilling effect’ in absence of certainty
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2024.
