Media

HKU Holds Dedication Ceremony for Cheng Yu Tung Tower
on the Centennial Campus

08 Nov 2012

 

A dedication ceremony was held today (November 8) for Cheng Yu Tung Tower on HKU’s Centennial Campus.  The building is the new home of the University’s Faculty of Law, which began its classes on Caine Road 43 years ago.

The University is grateful to Dr Cheng Yu-Tung, founder of the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation.  A generous donation of $400 million was made in 2008 to support campus development and the Faculty of Law.  The new Law building on the Centennial Campus is named Cheng Yu Tung Tower in his honour.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, Honorary Chairman of the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation, said: “Our family attaches great importance to the Faculty. We sincerely hope that with this new development, the Faculty can help further advance the concept of rule of law and contribute to the prosperity of both Hong Kong and the Mainland.”

Vice-Chancellor Professor Lap-Chee Tsui described the benefaction as a testimony to the great partnership between the Cheng Family and HKU. “The donation will enable the Faculty to enhance its teaching, research, and exchange activities with a view to fulfilling its special mission of serving as a bridge between different legal cultures and systems, and realising its vision of becoming one of the leading law institutions in the world,” said Professor Tsui.

Their messages were echoed in the address of Professor Andrew Li, Honorary Professor of the Law Faculty and the former Chief Justice. “The continued vigour of the rule of law in our society depends on the vigilance of everyone. Above all, it depends on the dedication of successive generations of lawyers who are fully committed to safeguarding it. Lawyers are what Law Schools make them. That is why the Law School at this University has played and will continue to play such a significant role in maintaining the rule of law in our community,” Professor Li said.

Thanking Dr Cheng and his family for their support, Professor Johannes Chan, Dean of Law, said: “The Faculty has been the training ground of many distinguished legal minds and generations of lawyers who have formed the backbone of the rule of law. To us, the new home, made possible by Dr Cheng’s generous donation, is a commitment to the important and unique mission of the Faculty in maintaining and developing the rule of law in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland.”

The Faculty moved into Cheng Yu Tung Tower in 2012. The new home provides state-of-the-art facilities, a new and larger moot court, advocacy laboratories, an expanded law library that is technologically equipped for contemporary research, various teaching and research facilities, and an Alumni and Reading Room.

For the speech of Professor Andrew Li, please visit http://www.cpao.hku.hk/media/121108_LiSpeech_E.pdf

For the speech of Professor Johannes Chan, Dean of Law, please visit http://www.cpao.hku.hk/media/121108_Deanspeech.pdf

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Trinni Choy, Assistant Director (Media), Tel: (852) 2859 2606 Mobile: (852) 9464 3431 Email: pychoy@hku.hk .