Legal forum concludes with pledge of further cooperation

Sam Hou Fai

The third Cross-Strait High Level Forum on the legal affairs of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan concluded yesterday with judges and experts from the four Chinese jurisdictions sharing their thoughts and opinions on the concept of a system guarantee for judicial justice, as well as furthering cooperation in combating crimes.
Hosting the forum in Macau for the first time, the president of Macau’s Court of Final Appeal, Sam Hou Fai, spoke during the closing ceremony, stating that the seminar has provided a plat- form for the four judicial circles to learn from each other’s experiences, work closely in the pursuit of judicial development, and promote judicial cooperation across the Strait.
He stressed that “although mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau belong to different legal systems and have differences in their levels of societal, economical and judicial development, as well as people’s legal awareness, they share the same pursuit of justice, and the same value orientation of achieving and ensuring judicial independence through institutional building.”
After a one-and-a-half day exchange, representatives from the four judicial circles concluded that they had reached a broad consensus on key topics such as where to draw the boundary between judicial trials and judicial administration, ensuing independent and autonomous management of the courts’ expenses, and deepening the judicial exchanges and cooperation across the strait.
Hong Kong’s Chief Judge of the High Court, Andrew Cheung, stated in his closing speech: “As of building a safeguarded legal system that’s trusted by the people, although we are from the four different judicial circles, we face some very similar challenges.”
“Thereby, this seminar is very meaningful, as the judicial organs across the Strait can share their respective experiences and can use the exchange to learn from each other. By learning about the others’ approaches and methods, our Hong Kong delegation has gained more extensive materials to make more comprehensive considerations about Hong Kong’s [judicial] reality,” he added.
Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan Secretary-General, Ms Lin Jiin-fang, who is also Taiwan’s Chief Convener of the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, indicated that “this seminar took a step further away from the last edition in discussing the core concerns in the judicial system (…), which demonstrates the four jurisdictions’ determination to defend judicial fairness.” She thus expected the cross-Strait judicial circles to continue inspiring each other through further and closer communication.
Additionally, mainland China’s Special Advisor of the Cross-
Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, Mr Jiang Bixin, expressed his vision of improving and working together to update the judicial systems on both sides of the Strait, suggesting that “building the judicial mutual assistance mechanism not only needs mutual benefits but also needs sincerity and good faith coming from compatriots’ ties.”