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Bernard Man

It is very often said that the common law is one of Hong Kong’s greatest assets. It provides us with a corpus of law which shares common origins with those of many established jurisdictions. It enables conversations to take place between our legal professionals and with our counterparts elsewhere.
As the only common law jurisdiction with both Chinese and English as official languages used in court, Hong Kong is the connection between China and the common law world.
But what exactly is the Hong Kong common law?
The term “the common law” can refer to a number of different things. It takes its meaning from context. One meaning of the “common law”, in particular when juxtaposed against statutes or written law, is the body of rules derived from case precedents.
Case law is a very important source of law in common law systems. It took me quite some time as a young law student to come to terms with this. Essentially, the idea is that written laws will not cover all aspects of human activity, and where the answer to a case is not provided by a written law, judges – as organs of the state exercising coercive power to adjudicate disputes – must decide what is right.
They explain their reasons in judgments, and courts which come after them will endeavour to ensure that the law is coherent and consistent, so that what was regarded as a good reason for a conclusion in a previous case should also be a good reason for the same conclusion in subsequent cases.
Of course, the rules of precedent (in Latin stare decisis) are a little more complex than my rudimentary summary above. But the broad idea remains that the common law places much importance on “authority”, that is, what authoritative courts have ruled in the past. Authoritative determinations by higher courts should bind subsequent and lower courts. This promotes consistency, accessibility and rationality in the law.
What, then, is “authority” for present day Hong Kong? For historical reasons, many of our common law principles are derived from decisions in England and Wales or the wider United Kingdom. Indeed, before 1997, final appeals from Hong Kong were heard by the Privy Council in London, and their decisions were part of Hong Kong law. They were and are binding on all Hong Kong courts.
What about overseas, in particular, English authorities in post-1997 Hong Kong? There was some confusion on their status until recently.
The Court of Final Appeal clarified the position in their judgment in Wong Chi Hung v Lo Wing Pun & another [2026] HKCFA 14 handed down last month.
The facts and actual determinations of the case, interesting for other reasons, are not relevant for present purposes. What matters is what the Chief Justice, with the agreement of the entire court, said in paragraphs 23 to 32 of the judgment.
In summary, the Chief Justice explained that with regard to UK decisions, only decisions of the Privy Council before July 1, 1997, on appeals from Hong Kong are binding in Hong Kong, subject to subsequent departure by the Court of Final Appeal.

All other UK decisions are not binding, though the cogency of the reasoning may mean that they will be followed. That is also true for decisions, including those of their highest courts, in common law jurisdictions such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore. No particular jurisdiction is accorded any special status by reason of the provenance of its authorities.
In particular, the Chief Justice said in paragraph 31 that “the constitutional provisions of the Basic Law concerning the sources of the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, namely Articles 8, 18(1) and 84, also establish conclusively that the common law applied in Hong Kong is the common law of Hong Kong, and not that of England and Wales, nor that of any other common law jurisdiction”.
The Hong Kong common law is therefore an independent body of law, although we benefit substantially from the wisdom of other common law jurisdictions too.
One of the many happy things about being a barrister is that we take part in shaping our law. As my friend and colleague Victor Dawes SC observed in this column last week, the common law develops incrementally through advocates presenting to judges, in open exchanges, our best efforts on what the law is or what it should be. Through arguments in court, we contribute in our small way to the development of Hong Kong’s own common law.
Bernard Man SC is the current chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association’s committee on land, trust and probate and a civil litigator.
Legal Tales is a weekly column by senior members of the Hong Kong Bar Association presenting their perspectives on current affairs.


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The evolution of Hong Kong’s independent common law

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A recent Court of Final Appeal ruling confirms that the city’s common law is its very own

A recent Court of Final Appeal ruling confirms that the city’s common law is its very own