Administrative Law in Hong Kong

This new text provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of administrative law in Hong Kong. It includes original commentary on judicial review, administrative tribunals, the Ombudsman, the Legislative Council Redress System, Commissions of Inquiry, the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, the Audit Commission, subsidiary legislation and more. Drawing on law, policy and practice, it offers detailed analysis while maintaining accessibility, charting developments as Hong Kong continues to evolve as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Administrative Law in Hong Kong is essential reading for judges, practitioners, policymakers, academics, students and commentators with an interest in public law, governance and administration.

Foreword; Preface; Table of legislation; Table of international treaties and instruments; Table of cases; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; Part I. The Constitutional and Administrative Context: 2. Governance and administration in Hong Kong; 3. The constitutional foundation of judicial review in Hong Kong; Part II. Judicial Review: The Leave Stage: 4. The leave stage: principles and procedure; 5. Delay; 6. Standing; 7. Judicial review and the public/private divide; 8. Statutory exclusion of review, non-justiciability and variable intensity of review; 9. Arguability and qualitative filtering; Part III. The Grounds of Judicial Review: 10. Overview of the grounds of judicial review; 11. Excess of power, the limits of discretionary power and non-compliance with statute; 12. Improper purposes, improper motives and abuse of power; 13. Relevance of considerations; 14. Insufficient retention of discretion: unlawful delegation, divestiture and relinquishment; 15. Fettering of discretion; 16. Error of fact and error of law; 17. Legitimate expectations; 18. Unreasonableness and irrationality; 19. Procedural fairness, procedural impropriety and natural justice; Part IV. Judicial Remedies, Non-Judicial Remedies and Subsidiary Legislation: 20. Remedies in judicial review; 21. Administrative tribunals and administrative complaints; 22. Other remedial mechanisms; 23. Subsidiary legislation; Index.

Stephen Thomson is an associate professor of law at City University of Hong Kong. He is a legal adviser to the Ombudsman of Hong Kong, a member of the Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong and an examiner on the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination. His work on administrative law has appeared in a number of leading law journals. Dr Thomson has also written the first and only text on the nobile officium, the extraordinary equitable jurisdiction of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, cited with approval by the Inner House of the Court of Session and the Scottish Land Court. He also advised the Scottish judiciary on reform of civil procedure, his report being appended to a proposal for legislative reform.