Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah poses for a photo at her office at the Department of Justice in Central district during an interview with China Daily on March 3, 2022. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
The Department of Justice in Hong Kong has made promoting reciprocal enforcement of judgments between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland one of its priorities this year, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah said on Wednesday.
The department has made consistent progress in this regard over the past three years since the milestone in January 2019, when it signed an arrangement with the Supreme People’s Court, China’s top court, on mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters, covering a wide range of aspects, including intellectual property disputes.
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Cheng told China Daily that she plans to submit a draft bill for implementing the agreement in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to the city’s legislature for deliberation this year.
The improvement will remove the need to relitigate related cases, make the enforcement process more accessible, and establish a more comprehensive and transparent mechanism for recognizing and implementing judgments between the two places, Cheng said.
The department is also propelling a review of the arrangement concerning mutual service of judicial documents between Hong Kong and the mainland. The arrangement was signed in 1999 and has been implemented for over two decades.
Cheng said it works well, but areas for improvement remain, to ensure that justice is more easily administered and assessed.
Besides cooperation with the mainland, the department is pressing ahead with various tasks, such as preparation to open a regional arbitration center to improve Hong Kong’s status as an international legal and dispute resolution services hub.
In November 2021, the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization announced the establishment of a new regional center in Hong Kong, in addition to five other centers around the globe. The center aims to provide broader and affordable services to Asian and African countries and regions.
The reform of attorney fee structure is also progressing smoothly. To enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness in arbitration services, the department has proposed revising the current structure and adopting more flexible fee arrangements. The bill has been tabled to the legislature for a first and second reading on Wednesday.
Cheng added that as July 1 marks the 25th anniversary of the HKSAR’s return to the motherland, the Department of Justice will hold various activities in the next few months.
It will invite experts to share their insights on constitutional orders and national security at the Basic Law Legal Forum on May 27 and the National Security Law Legal Forum on May 28.
The annual Hong Kong Legal Week will be held from November 7 through 11, and many international experts and organizations will be invited, Cheng said.
