Contract Law in Hong Kong

Preface

Preface It is now more than 10 years since the last publication of Betty Ho’s Contract Law in Hong Kong, the only comprehensive student text on this subject. In the intervening period, a great number of changes have been made to the law of Hong Kong (and that of England, which continues to exercise signicant inuence here). Hong Kong’s contract law has been considerably affected by these changes, both at the specic, contract-law level and at the more overall, “macro” level, given the profound effect of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The legal (and political) signicance of the 1997 handover is summarised at some length in chapter 2. Sufce to say here that, despite the continuation of the common law in Hong Kong as guaranteed by the Basic Law, “1997” has presented Hong Kong with the opportunity to develop a unique jurisprudence, inuenced by a combination of sources — from the former colonial power, from China mainland and, most important, from within Hong Kong itself, now exercising an “almost” full right of nal adjudication. Given the changes outlined, we feel that a new comprehensive and readable student text is long overdue. We stress “readability” since, except for the largely descriptive rst two chapters, our text places particular focus on the “stories”, the cases which form the foundation of Hong Kong contract law. As a “common law”-based jurisdiction, Hong Kong’s law derives primarily from the decided cases and this is particularly true in the areas of contract and tort law. While legislative rules are an increasingly important source of Hong Kong contract law, especially in the area of consumer protection, the role of legislation remains to “ll the gaps” rather than, as in civil law jurisdictions, to provide a complete, codied legal framework. We believe, therefore, in conveying contract law through the careful examination and explanation of case illustrations. This has the further advantage that the study of cases is far more reader-friendly than a focus on dense, legalise, text, especially given that many of our readers will be studying law in their second language. As we have already implied, this book is written principally for the law student, though it should be of interest to students of other disciplines who need an understanding of contract law. We are also gratied to know that many members of the legal profession here have expressed interest in, and support for, this text. x Preface Finally, we wish, on an introductory basis to explain two issues of style. The rst relates to the use of terms such as “plaintiff”, “defendant”, etc. In England, though not in Hong Kong, the terminology has changed over the last few years such that the former “plaintiff” has now become the “claimant”. What we have endeavoured to do throughout is to use the terminology prevalent at the time a particular case was reported. The second explanation relates to the use of the expression “he” to include both the masculine and the feminine. This “Interpretation Act”1 approach avoids the use of the clumsy s/he pronoun or the grammatically incorrect use of “they” and “their” to indicate a genderneutral singular. We are, of course, fully aware that women make contracts and have full contractual capacity in Hong Kong. We have endeavoured to state the law accurately as of 25 April 2007. 1. From the Interpretation Act, 1889, which enacts that, unless the context otherwise requires, the masculine shall include the feminine and the singular the plural. ...