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Legal Updates
Arrest of juveniles
What will happen if your children or child is arrested by the police? An overview of the rights of juveniles under arrest. Introduction We often hear of arrest of youngsters in Hong Kong. In this article, we briefly discuss how the legal system processes those…Read More
Hong Kong Cookies Regulation
Partner Pádraig Walsh provides the following overview on Hong Kong Cookies Regulation as part of a coordinated international review published in PIN CODE. Citation: Gary CYWIE, Charles MORGAN, Fabrice PERBOST, Alexander BRANDT, Padraig WALSH, Jun YANG and Eduardo USTARAN, ‘Cookies Regulations: An International Outlook’, Revue…Read More
Substantial connection in jurisdictional matters – no separate test applied to parties without family in Hong Kong says the Court of Appeal in JQ v CLH CACV 350/2021
On 27 May 2021, His Honour Judge I Wong dismissed the Husband’s challenge against Hong Kong having jurisdiction over the Wife’s divorce petition. The Husband appealed. CACV 350/2021 was heard before Hon Chow JA, Hon Barma and Chow JJA in the Court of Appeal. The…Read More
The Alternative to Class Action Litigation in Hong Kong
Class actions are not recognised by Hong Kong Courts, so, an individual’s right of action may not be as effective as it might otherwise be. It is for this reason that jurisdictions which do not recognise class actions often have a counterbalance in strong regulation…Read More
Service by NFT – Court serves defendants by ‘airdrop’ into digital wallet
BACKGROUND In D’Aloia v (1) Persons Unknown and (2) Binance Holdings Limited and others, the High Court of England and Wales granted the claimant permission to serve court proceedings on ‘persons unknown’ over blockchain, by way of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs NFTs are a relatively…Read More
Data Transfers: Hong Kong personal data importers and transfer impact assessments
When a Hong Kong personal data importer receives personal data from a data exporter in another location, it is becoming increasingly common for the data exporter to carry out an assessment of the levels of protection in Hong Kong available for the personal data and…Read More
Data Transfers: The curious case of cross-border data transfers in Hong Kong
The Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (the “PDPO”) was passed in 1995 and took effect from December 1996. One of its key provisions was a restriction on cross-border data transfers in section 33. More than 25 years later, section 33 is still not yet in operation….Read More
Legal Update: Developments in virtual asset regulation in Hong Kong
In this snapshot legal update, we report on various announcements and policy updates announced during Hong Kong FintechWeek in respect of virtual assets (“VA”). On 31 October 2022, the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) issued a circular on virtual asset futures exchange-traded funds (“VA Futures…Read More
Questions regarding same-sex marriage to be heard in the Court of Final Appeal
On 10 November 2022, the Court of Appeal granted leave to appeal against its judgment in Sham Tsz Kit (岑子杰) v Secretary for Justice [2022] HKCA 1247. The Court of First Instance had dismissed Mr Sham’s application for judicial review, which argued that the (1)…Read More
Data Transfers: Protecting personal data by contractual means
The personal data protection regime in Hong Kong does not contain a statutory restriction on the transfer of personal data outside Hong Kong. However, this does not mean that there are no protections in respect of cross-border personal data transfers. In this article, Pádraig Walsh…Read More
Data Transfers: Frameworks for organising cross-border data transfers
There are serious legal consequences to a mishandled cross-border personal data transfer. In this article, Pádraig Walsh from our Data Privacy practice explores the steps a business should take when conducting an international data transfer process. Policy and process Good practice does not happen by…Read More
Legal Update: “Consultant” to employer company held criminally liable for non-payment of wages
Introduction Any employer who, “wilfully and without reasonable excuse”, fails to pay wages to an employee within 7 days of the wage period or date of termination of employment may commit an offence under section 63C of the Employment Ordinance (the “EO”). The punishment can…Read More
