A delegation of young lawyers led by Deputy Secretary for Justice Cheung Kwok-kwan concluded a visit to Shenzhen today and departed for Foshan.

Mr Cheung called on the Justice Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality and met its Director Jiang Xiaowen to discuss co-operation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, including on foreign-related legal services and the nurturing of international legal talent.

He said he hoped both sides would make good use of the Co-operative Arrangement on Legal Matters, which the Department of Justice (DoJ) renewed with the Shenzhen Municipal Government in April, and continue to promote connectivity between legal systems in the Greater Bay Area.

Noting that Hong Kong Legal Week 2023, held last week, attracted over 11,000 participants from more than 50 jurisdictions, Mr Chan highlighted that the event  featured a bay area-themed forum and exhibition booths for the first time.

He added that he hoped Legal Week stakeholders in the bay area would deepen co-operation and jointly contribute to the development of rule of law in the region.

The delegation also gained a better understanding regarding the latest developments in promoting rule of law education in Shenzhen, and exchanged views with the Justice Bureau on how young lawyers can join efforts to take rule of law education forward.

Mr Cheung said the DoJ is preparing to launch the first phase of its Rule of Law Education Train-the-Leaders Programme and would like young legal professionals from both places to be proactive in promoting the rule of law.

The delegation also visited the Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court and toured its Alternative Dispute Resolution Center for International Commercial Disputes, the Litigation Service Center, the E-courtroom and the Technology Court in Shenzhen.

The lawyers held an exchange session with Qianhai Court President Bian Fei. In addition to understanding how lawtech has improved efficiency in the handling of cross-jurisdictional cases in the Qianhai Court, the delegation discussed ways of strengthening engagement by young Hong Kong talent in foreign-related civil and commercial cases, including areas of work requiring the application of Hong Kong law.

Additionally, the delegation visited the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration and was briefed by its Vice President An Xin on the court’s latest developments. The discussions covered topics including the promotion of smart arbitration and the strengthening of professional collaboration on legal and dispute resolution services in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

Mr Cheung said Qianhai is not only a national strategic platform for Shenzhen-Hong Kong co-operation but also serves as a bridgehead for national technology development and a pilot zone for allowing Hong Kong-invested enterprises to adopt Hong Kong law.

The deputy legal chief also referred to Hong Kong’s development of the “eight centres” as outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan.

To consolidate the city’s status as a centre for international legal and dispute resolution services in the Asia Pacific region, the DoJ has been pursuing the extension of two measures – one “allowing Hong Kong-invested enterprises to adopt Hong Kong”, the other “allowing Hong Kong-invested enterprises to choose for arbitration to be seated in Hong Kong” – to the whole bay area.

Mr Cheung said he believed these measures would not only provide sound legal services and safeguards to help foreign investors use Hong Kong as the gateway to the Mainland while enabling Mainland investors to use it as a platform to expand overseas, but would also be conducive to the overall development of the legal professions in the two places.

The delegation then visited Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen and Mindray Biomedical Electronics Co, Ltd to ascertain how legal services can support the development of different industries involved in leveraging innovation and technology.