Comparative Public Policy

A comparative Evaluation of Hong Kong’s Legislative Powers to Regulate Trade in Endangered Wild Animals
Principal Investigator: Amanda Whitfort
Project Period: 01/01/2017 – 01/01/2019
Funding Source: RGC General Research Fund

CCPL Public Opinion Survey 2016: Hong Kong’s Journey Towards Democratisation and 2047
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai
Project Period: 23/01/2017 -31/10/2017
Funding Source: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

The Community of Lawyers: Trust and Collective Identity of Chinese Public Interest Lawyers
Principal Investigator: Fu Hualing 
Project Period: 07/2014 – 07/2016 
Funding Source: General Research Fund

The Legal Enforcement of Contracts and Loan Agreements: The Role of Cultural Values in Theories of Consent and Vitiation 
Principal Investigator: Puja Kapai 
Project Period: 01/01/2012 – 30/06/2015 (extended) 
Funding Source: General Research Fund

Empowering Rural Communities: Legal Aid and the Rule of Law in Rural China
Principal Investigator: Fu Hualing 
Project Period: March 2007 – September 2010 
Funding Source: The University of Washington, Asian Law Centre 
This project aims to: promote structural change in the delivery of legal aid services through a ‘grass-roots level’ model for access to justice in China’s rural regions; to build sustainable new networks of local government, universities, lawyers and citizens who have a stake in fostering civil rule of law in rural China; and to deliver the first rigorous, replicable evaluation of the impact of legal aid in rural China. By pursuing these aims it is hoped that democracy, human rights, labour rights and rule of law may develop in the rural regions of China . This project will also try to build the capacity of citizens to make legal demands on their government and a government that is obligated to respond. In addition to publication, outputs of this project will include developing legal aid centres in rural regions, training of county legal aid lawyers, township justice assistants and legal student interns, capacity building in regional law schools in dispute resolution and advocacy training.

Hong Kong Civil Forfeiture Project 
Principal Investigator: Simon Young 
Project Period: March 2006 – February 2008 
Funding Source: Research Grants Council – Public Policy Research Grant 
In the spring of 2006, CCPL began research to identify the most effective laws and policies to eliminate and deter profit-making crime by means of interdicting crime-tainted property (i.e. the proceeds and instruments of serious crime). The topic of civil and criminal forfeiture is quite a technical and complex one. To appreciate the subject fully, it requires extensive research and consideration of the experiences from many different countries. And it requires placing those international experiences in the Hong Kong context. The goal of the research project is to produce a final report, making recommendations for policy and legislative reform in Hong Kong. We also intend to produce a volume of scholarly papers contributed by the International Experts to be published with a leading academic publisher. Such a publication will likely be a first as no comparative work of worldwide civil and criminal forfeiture schemes exists. The discussion paper for the project is available here and the press release is available here.