International Law in Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal: Still Relevant? - USALI Speaker Program

Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Time: 12-1:30 pm (Eastern)

Place: Furman Hall 326 and on zoom 

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This event is co-sponsored by the APEC Study Center at Columbia University.

About the event

The National Security Law, which China imposed on Hong Kong in 2020, takes precedence over local law and has profoundly affected civil liberties and the right to fair trial. Does international law no longer matter in Hong Kong? Carole Petersen, professor of law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, finds that in cases not affecting Beijing’s core interests, local judges still rely on international and comparative sources and still rule against the local Hong Kong government. This has been particularly evident in strategic litigation to advance the rights of the LGBT community. Petersen concludes that if the local government is serious about trying to rebuild Hong Kong’s international reputation, then it should accept and fully implement these rulings.  

About the speaker:

Carole J. Petersen is the Cades Foundation Professor of Law in the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she teaches courses on international law, human rights, and gender and the law. She is also a member of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. From 1989-2006, Professor Petersen taught law in Hong Kong, where she also served as a director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and an active member of the Women’s Studies Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. She continues to research human rights in the territory and the implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” model of autonomy. Her recent article, Territorial Autonomy as a Tool of Conflict Resolution? Lessons from “One Country, Two Systems” in Hong Kong, is available in the Academia Sinica Law Journal, 2022 Special Issue 195-243. Professor Petersen holds a BA from the University of Chicago, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a postgraduate diploma in the law of the People’s Republic of China from the University of Hong Kong.