14 April 2020
Fear of Unaccountability vs Fear of a Pandemic: COVID-19 in Hong Kong
When news began to circulate about a novel virus in December 2019, Hong Kong was in the midst of protests that had been going on for months. There were (and continue to be) widespread demands for accountability and democracy, accompanied by a significant degree of public distrust and dissatisfaction towards the Government. Pertinently, the Government had just invoked hugely controversial emergency powers to quell the protests. Hong Kong was also one of the hardest-hit regions during the SARS epidemic 17 years ago, and there was a collective determination not to repeat the tragedy. Continue reading >>
0 
28 November 2019
Chinese (Anti-)Constitutionalism
Many (Verfassungs-)blog posts on China, be it on tweets, white papers, or the Social Credit System, criticize legal institutions and realities by highlighting their difference from “Western” or constitutionalist traditions. This makes it rather easy for the explicitly anti-Western and anti-constitutionalist official Chinese system of thought, Sino-Marxism, to reject any criticism – either as Eurocentric, (legal) Orientalist, and “culturally hegemonic” or as ignorant of “theoretical basis” of the Chinese system. Knowing Sino-Marxism, which provides powerful political but only limited analytical tools, is thus crucial for transnational and global constitutionalists in order to defend their values without being accused of a lack of understanding – also in the current case of Hong Kong. Continue reading >>
0
22 November 2019
The Hong Kong Judiciary and Beijing’s Temper Tantrum
On 18 November 2019, Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance held that parts of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, and the Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation enacted pursuant to the Ordinance, violate the territory’s Basic Law – its constitutional instrument. Beijing’s response to the ruling was the equivalent of a temper tantrum. Viewed in light of the Court's judgment and Beijing’s lengthy history of undermining the Hong Kong judiciary, Beijing’s latest outbursts amount to nothing less than a declaration of war on the territory’s common law legal system. Continue reading >>
0
30 June 2017
Twenty Years ‘One Country, Two Systems’ in Hong Kong: A Reason to Celebrate?
The 1st July 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the British-Chinese handover of Hong Kong. Recent developments in Hong Kong illustrate that despite the anniversary, the current state of affairs of ‘one country, two systems’ does not give much reason to celebrate. Continue reading >>
0