Tag Archive for: Hong Kong

Trial Supervision System No Longer Impediment in Hong Kong’s Recognition and Enforcement of Chinese Mainland Judgments

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1. Introduction

For more than 20 years after the handover, Hong Kong courts had regularly noted difficulties with the ‘trial supervision system’ (also known as ‘retrial procedure’ ) in the Chinese Mainland when attempting to recognise and enforce Mainland judgments under the common law, as the trial supervision system was thought to mean that these judgments fail to meet the ‘final and conclusive’ requirement. Such thinking was criticised by scholars as problematic.[1] To address the issue, statutory regimes on the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments between the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong have been implemented. More recent studies documented changes in the judicial attitude of Hong Kong courts,[2] but there was a lack of definitive rulings to clarify the legal position. This article focuses on the most recent Hong Kong cases which confirmed that the trial supervision system in the Chinese Mainland has no automatic impact on the recognition and enforcement of Mainland judgments in Hong Kong. A party alleging that the trial supervision system has affected the finality and conclusiveness of a Mainland judgment must prove the likelihood of a retrial being ordered through factual and/or expert evidence.

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Second edition of The Hague Academy of International Law’s Advanced Course in Hong Kong on “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters: Judgments Convention”

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From 2 to 6 December 2024, the second edition of The Hague Academy of International Law’s Advanced Course in Hong Kong was held, co-organised by the Asian Academy of International Law (AAIL) with the support of the Department of Justice of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR. Once again, the Hague Academy of International Law brought distinguished speakers to the “fragrant harbour” to deliver lectures on the “Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters”. Just a stone’s throw from the Old Supreme Court Building (now the seat of Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal) at the premises of the Hong Kong Club, legal scholars, national judges, government officials and legal practitioners from over 20 jurisdictions as diverse as Laos, the People’s Republic of China, (francophone) Cameroon, The Netherlands, South Africa or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia came together to discuss their respective experiences and the prospects of the latest instrument in this field, the HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention.

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Report on the 2024 Asia-Pacific Colloquium of the Journal of Private International Law (JPIL)

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On 5–6 December 2024, 18 private international lawyers from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore came together at the University of Melbourne for the 2024 Asia-Pacific Colloquium of the Journal of Private International Law (JPIL).

The colloquium was the first since 2018, when it had been held in Japan. The 2024 event was expertly hosted by Professor Richard Garnett and Professor Ying Khai Liew of the University of Melbourne Law School, and held at University House at UniMelb’s Parkville campus. Read more

An anti-suit injunction in support of an arbitration agreement in light of the EU Sanction against Russia

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By Poomintr Sooksripaisarnkit, Lecturer in Maritime Law, Australian Maritime College, College of Sciences and Engineering, University of Tasmania

On 24th September 2024, Mimmie Chan J handed down the judgment of the Court of First Instance of the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in Bank A v Bank B [2024] HKCFI 2529. In this case, the Plaintiff (Bank A) with its base of operation in Germany was under the supervision of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). Its majority shareholder was the Defendant (Bank B) who held 99.39% shares. In turn, the Defendant was a Russian bank whose majority shareholder was the Government of the Russian Federation.

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Application Now Open: The Hague Academy of International Law’s Advanced Course in Hong Kong – 2nd Edition (2024)

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The second edition of the HAIL Advanced Courses in Hong Kong, organised in cooperation with with the Asian Academy of International Law and (AAIL) and the Hong Kong Department of Justice, will take place on 2-6 December 2024 with a focus on one of the key features of Private International Law, namely Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters, in particular the HCCH 2019 Judgments Convention.
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The Convergence of Judicial Rules between Mainland China and Hong Kong has Reached a Higher Level

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By Du Tao* and Jingwei Qiu**

With the increasingly close personnel exchanges and deepening economic cooperation between Mainland China and Hong Kong, the number and types of legal disputes between the two regions have also increased. Against the backdrop of adhering to the “One Country, Two Systems” principle and the Basic Law of Hong Kong, the judicial and legal professions of the two regions have worked closely together and finally signed “the Arrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as “REJ Arrangement”) in January 2019, which will come into effect in January 2024. REJ Arrangement aims to establish an institutional arrangement for the courts of the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to recognize and enforce judgments in civil and commercial cases, achieve the “circulation” of judgments in civil and commercial cases, reduce the burden of repeated litigation, and save judicial resources in the two regions.

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First edition of The Hague Academy of International Law’s Advanced Course in Hong Kong on “Current Trends on International Commercial and Investment Dispute Settlement”

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From 11 to 16 December 2023, the first edition of The Hague Academy of International Law’s Advanced Course in Hong Kong was held, co-organised by the Asian Academy of International Law and the Department of Justice of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region. For this programme, the Hague Academy of International Law convened distinguished speakers to deliver lectures on “Current Trends on International Commercial and Investment Dispute Settlement”.

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