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Jose-Antonio Maurellet

The Department of Justice, led by Secretary for Justice Paul Lam SC, hosted a seminar this month in Paris, titled “Hong Kong Legal Services – Gateway to China and Beyond”.
The speakers included French lawyers living and working in Hong Kong, as well as French business leaders who have invested and managed part of their Asian operations from Hong Kong.
Also participating were Hong Kong solicitors and barristers, including Eva Sit SC, vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association, and myself.
Hong Kong has been home to a strong French business presence for a long time. This, of course, includes various French luxury brands established here, many of which derive close to 30 per cent of their revenue from the Chinese market.
There are also major French banks, technology firms, green energy and engineering enterprises, and utility companies that use Hong Kong as a springboard to access the mainland Chinese and wider Asian markets.
In turn, this is reflected by a significant French community in Hong Kong and a well-established school that produces excellent results in the French Baccalaureat examinations.
At the July 9 seminar, many attendees expressed strong interest in Hong Kong, not only as a destination for investment but also as a place to live.
Notwithstanding some of the recent headlines about Hong Kong, the city’s unique characteristics continue to attract businesses to set up here. Some attendees mentioned Hong Kong’s low rates of taxation and predictable regulatory environment.
Our arts scene, once derided as a cultural desert, is now in a renaissance with contributions from a number of French museums and exhibitions.
For businesses, the existence of a well-established and trusted legal system rooted in common law is of primordial importance.

The Hong Kong judiciary administers justice independently, which ensures that disputes will be dealt with fairly and based solely on the evidence and the law, regardless of the identity of the parties involved.
Additionally, the significant presence of many international law firms advising on Hong Kong law as well as other systems of law is not to be underestimated, as it enhances Hong Kong’s ability to attract complex international trade and finance, which often operate across borders.
Our success as an international dispute resolution centre is illustrated by the achievements of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), widely recognised as a world-class institution. In 2024, the total value of disputes handled by the HKIAC reached a record HK$106 billion.
The statistics also dispel any suggestion that parties to new contracts are turning to other jurisdictions to resolve their disputes.
For the 2024 filings at the HKIAC, 65 per cent arose from contracts signed in 2020 or later and 40 per cent from contracts signed in 2022 or later.
It is noteworthy that 15 per cent of those disputes involved no Asian parties, and applied 15 different governing laws with Hong Kong, English and Chinese law being the most commonly used.
Nearly 80 per cent of all HKIAC arbitrations were conducted in English whereas the remainder were conducted in Chinese or a combination of both languages.
This underscores Hong Kong’s deep pool of bilingual and triliterate lawyers, who not only possess fluency in the Chinese language but are also well versed in its norms and business culture. In this respect, Hong Kong is second to none.
Its combination of familiarity with international standards and being au fait with Chinese culture and norms make Hong Kong irreplaceable.
As we left the seminar held at a grand hotel, one of the 12 Parisian Palaces, it occurred to me that five of them were managed by Hong Kong-based luxury hotel groups.
We are capable of learning from the world, adapting to it and even leading in some areas. This is after all Hong Kong, rien n’est impossible.
Jose-Antonio Maurellet SC is the current chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association and a commercial litigator.
Legal Tales is a new weekly online column by senior members of the Hong Kong Bar Association presenting their perspectives on current affairs.


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Law and Crime

Legal Tales

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How a trip to Paris showed that in Hong Kong, nothing is impossible

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Recent Department of Justice seminar in the French capital underscored the country’s strong connections with Hong Kong

Recent Department of Justice seminar in the French capital underscored the country’s strong connections with Hong Kong