Speech by SJ at ALB Hong Kong In-House Legal Summit 2026 (English just) (with picture)
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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC, at the ALB Hong Kong In-House Legal Summit 2026 today (September 10):
Differentiated visitors, women and gentlemen,
Excellent early morning. It is a fantastic enjoyment to join you today at the Asian Legal Business (ALB) Hong Kong In-House Legal Summit 2026.
Asia has actually become among the world’s most vibrant financial areas. Fast digital change, cross-border financial investment development, tightening up regulative structures, and increasing ecological, social, and governance (ESG) requirements have all made business landscape more complicated. In this fast-changing environment, the function of internal legal representatives has actually progressed drastically from supplying conventional legal assistance to tactical organization suggestions.
As internal attorneys, you supply legal evaluations that direct market entry, cross-border deals, and regulative compliance while pursuing organization interests in accordance with the law. The breadth of subjects today shows the intricacy of your day-to-day work. They are all extremely appropriate and essential to you as internal counsel.
Expert system (AI) is no doubt a tactical concern worldwide. Getting AI governance right is a requirement for accountable information transfers and keeping the trust of counterparties. Both are important for services running in various nations in today’s international economy. Hong Kong’s method to AI governance is facilitative yet appropriately managed. We intend to make it possible for development to thrive while protecting the genuine interests of all stakeholders. In this regard, the Government has actually established the Inter-Departmental Working Group to Review Legislation to Support Wider Application of AI, led by the Department of Justice (DoJ), to examine our laws to make sure that they will equal the quick technological modification. The evaluation will cover many locations of typical issue such as information personal privacy, copyright rights in AI-generated works, and cybersecurity dangers brought on by AI-enabled scams.
Of the lots of difficulties dealt with by business broadening overseas, sanctions and export controls are especially popular. Current advancements in worldwide geopolitics have actually developed enormous legal and functional ramifications along with unpredictabilities. As the only typical law jurisdiction within China acting as a worldwide legal and conflict resolution services centre, Hong Kong’s position on foreign sanctions is clear and based upon reputable concepts of public global law. Conserve and other than sanctions enforced by the United Nations Security Council which will be implemented under the United Nations Sanctions Ordinance (Cap. 537), unilateral foreign sanctions will not be acknowledged and will not have any legal force in Hong Kong.
Another noteworthy location is digital possessions. Hong Kong is dedicated to ending up being a leading center for digital possessions. The Government’s current assessments on controling over the counter dealing, custody, advisory, and management services for virtual possessions look for to supply a clear and robust structure. This structure is vital to the utilisation of digital possessions in a correct and organized way. Your organisations’ operations might require to be evaluated to get ready for the brand-new licensing guidelines. These current advancements highlight the value of internal counsel in carrying out due diligence on market entry jobs, guiding through regulative requirements, and directing the organisation through the intricacies of this emerging possession class, and making sure compliance with the relevant laws and guidelines.
With the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited presenting environment reporting requirements lined up with the International Sustainability Standards Board, together with international supply chain regulative updates, ESG has actually progressed from a voluntary effort into a core governance requirement. Internationally, regulators, financiers and customers are requiring higher ecological duty. For internal counsel, this indicates embedding sustainability into business governance, reducing greenwashing threats, and protecting access to global capital. Along this pattern, the National 15th Five-Year Plan has actually set a clear target for carbon peaking, reacting to market need for higher ecological responsibility. Hong Kong intends to attain comparable objectives.
Presently, the Government is examining the Competition Ordinance with a view to criminalising particular major anti-competitive conduct, in specific, bid-rigging. This modification focuses on transforming what is, currently, a simply civil matter, into one with possible criminal liability. Such an advancement will increase the significance of abiding by our competitors law through correct and enough procurement treatments, internal policies and training. Internal attorneys plainly play a crucial function in this regard.
The Government has actually enhanced workers’ security by presenting the brand-new “468 Rule” that decreases the limit for part-time employees to receive statutory advantages, and the abolition of the MPF (Mandatory Provident Fund) balancing out plan. These modifications impact labor force expenses and staff member relationships. Your assistance on these brand-new laws would assist your business to remain certified, prevent conflicts, and handle expenses efficiently.
I would likewise like to seize the day to show you some current advancements which will be of interest to internal legal representatives. On August 28, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) passed the changes to the Lawyers Law of the PRC, which, amongst other things, regularise the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) legal representatives’ plan. The GBA attorneys’ plan enables Hong Kong legal professionals to practice Mainland civil and industrial law in the 9 Mainland cities in the GBA. This implies that, initially, a lot of you might end up being certified to practice civil and industrial law in the GBA under the plan; and 2nd, your organisations might engage GBA-qualified legal representatives to encourage on cross-border problems including both Hong Kong law and Chinese Mainland law in one go.
Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland have actually up until now signed 10 plans on shared legal support in civil and industrial matters. The most recent one was signed on April 20. Which is the brand-new Arrangement on Mutual Service of Judicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Proceedings in between the Mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is not a completely brand-new arrangement, however an improved variation increasing the modes of service, using more choices and versatility to promote prompt and effective handling of cross-border civil and industrial procedures. It will enter result after the conclusion of the appropriate regional legal treatments in Hong Kong.
Because February 2025, the scope of application of the step of “allowing Hong Kong-invested enterprises to adopt Hong Kong law” has actually been extended from Qianhai, Shenzhen, to the 2 towns of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, while the step of “allowing Hong Kong-invested enterprises to choose for arbitration to be seated in Hong Kong as the seat of arbitration” has actually been extended from the Pilot Free Trade Zones in the Chinese Mainland to consist of the 9 Mainland towns in the GBA. Any organisation falling within the scope of these procedures now has more alternatives in figuring out the governing law along with the disagreement resolution stipulation in its agreements, which is a fundamental part of danger management.
The Hong Kong International Legal Talents Training Academy under the DoJ is committed to supplying capacity-building programs, a few of which might be of help to internal counsel. On August 21 and 22, about 400 individuals, some of them might be internal legal representatives, went to a useful training course on Chinese Mainland Civil and Commercial Laws in Hong Kong at which senior judges from the Chinese Mainland were welcomed to speak.
Having regard to the crucial function played by internal legal representatives, the DoJ likes constructing a better relationship with internal attorneys in order to much better comprehend and resolve your issues. I wish to conclude by welcoming you to go to the Hong Kong Legal Week 2026 arranged by the DoJ to be held in between November 2 and 6. You will have the ability to discover the information on our designated site for the Legal Week.
I want you all an extremely positive and efficient top. Thank you.