Prof. Chin Leng Lim, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Law, CUHK LAW

About the Speaker

Chin Leng Lim is the Choh-Ming Li Professor of Law and practises as a barrister and arbitrator with a leading London commercial set. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London, Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, an editorial board member of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and  associate member of the Institut de Droit International. His latest book is Treaty for a Lost City (Cambridge 2022). He is, currently, completing “The Methods and Aims of Post-Colonial International Law” which will be delivered at the Hague Academy of International Law/Académie de droit international de La Haye in 2023 before publication. Professor Lim joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2017 following a decade as Professor of Law at Hong Kong University where he had served as a member of HKU’s Senate and Court and in various other capacities in both the central and faculty administrations.

CPD credit is available upon application and subject to accreditation by the Law Society of Hong Kong (currently pending).

The Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed in 1984 and transferred control of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China from 1 July 1997. This set the scene for the establishment of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) in Hong Kong. Lim uses British archival sources to re-examine the Joint Declaration, the negotiations that led up to it and its resounding significance. Beginning with Margaret Thatcher’s preparations for her Beijing trip, his recent book, Treaty for a Lost City: The Sino-British Joint Declaration (Cambridge University Press, 2022) takes a chronological approach. In light of current developments, Lim will set out to explain some of the legal complexities that have underpinned the relationships between China, Hong Kong and Britain since 1979.