CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN PUBLIC LAW: THE RIGHT TO PROPERTY IN HONG KONG

By Richard Clayton QC

I am now coming to the end of this series of lectures, having spoken on freedom of expression on Monday and equality rights on Tuesday.  I am grateful to those of you who have attended earlier and would like to welcome those who have decided to attend this particular event. As I said at my first lecture on Monday, I propose to take my lead from the approach taken by the Final Court of Appeal in Hysan Development Co. Ltd. v Town Planning Board which reaffirmed the generous approach that the Hong Kong courts have always taken to human rights decisions from other jurisdictions. I believe that there is great value when doing human rights work of examining the case law of different jurisdictions. So many human rights questions are universal in nature- and it is often illuminating to draw upon the collective wisdom emerging from different constitutional approaches to the same issue.  Nevertheless, Courts when, applying comparative legal principles must always be astute to recognise the importance of different legal, political and cultural traditions, as well as, if appropriate giving effect to the particular language used in a particular rights instrument.

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