Media

The Hon Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma to speak on
“The Interpretation of Hong Kong's Constitution: A Personal View” at HKU

02 Apr 2013

Over the past 16 years, no other activities of Hong Kong’s courts have engaged the public interest and the community's interest than cases regarding the Basic Law. They probably provide the greatest challenges for the courts. Every constitution, and the Basic Law is no exception, can only provide a basic framework but it is an important framework comprising guaranteed rights and other fundamental facets of the community. Its interpretation is critical and the responsibility for this is left to the courts.

The Hon Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma, Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal, will provide his personal view on the direction the courts of Hong Kong have taken in the interpretation of the Basic Law in a lecture on April 8 (Monday) at the University of Hong Kong

The Chief Justice graduated from University of Birmingham in 1977. He was called to the English Bar in 1978, and the Hong Kong Bar in 1980, and was appointed as Queen’s Counsel in 1993. In 2000, he was elevated to the bench and appointed as a Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court in 2001. He was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 2002, and soon became the Chief Judge of the High Court in July 2003. He succeeded the former Chief Justice Andrew Li to become the second Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong in 2010.

The Common Law Lecture Series is organized by the Faculty of Law to contribute to the learning and development of the common law. Past speakers include Sir Anthony Mason, Mr. Justice Ribeiro, Lord Millett, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Scott, Sir David Williams, Lord Woolf, Mr. Justice Gault, Mr. Justice Phang, Lord Walker, Mr. Justice Litton, Mr. Justice Baragwanath, Chief Justice Li, Mr. Justice Gleeson, Mr Justice Bokhary and the Hon. Michael Kirby.

Details of the talk are as follows:

Date: April 8, 2013 (Monday)
Time: 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Venue: Large Moot Court Room, 2/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU (see Map http://www.maps.hku.hk )

For details of the Lecture Series, please visit: www.law.hku.hk/clls/ .

Public registration for the talk is closed. Media representatives who wish to attend please send full name, email address and name of institution to Lydia Bute (LBUTE@hku.hk ; Tel: 3917 4323) for arrangement.