In 2020, China imposed a national security law in its special administrative region Hong Kong, where there is a long-standing reputation for rule of law and judicial independence globally. While many scholars and analysts regard the national security law as indicating the beginning of the end of Hong Kong’s rule of law, Dr Lai argues that the rule of law in Hong Kong has already been at stake when the sovereign state commenced encroaching on Hong Kong’s legal system since 1997. In this lecture, Dr Lai will discuss how laws and courts of Hong Kong have been used by the authorities to achieve political end in post-colonial era, and how the political and legal systems of Hong Kong became further autocratised in light of the 2020 national security law.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Eric Yan-ho Lai is a visiting researcher at the Dickson Poon School of Law of King's College London, the co-convenor of Hong Kong Studies Association of the UK and the incoming associate fellow of Hong Kong Studies Hub at the University of Surrey. He studies law and politics, international human rights, legal profession and social movements in authoritarian regimes. He holds a PhD in law from SOAS University of London, and is formerly the Hong Kong Law Fellow at Center for Asian Law of Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of 破解香港的威權法治: 傘後與反送中以來的民主運動 [Unravelling Authoritarian Rule of Law in Hong Kong: From Post-Umbrella Resistance to the Anti-Extradition Bill Protest].
Moderator
Ken Lui (Master's Student, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto)
