ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with an argument in favor of a more legal-pluralist Rule of Law discourse which will better serve the legal, social, and political development of Hong Kong. The territory known as Hong Kong was acquired by the British Empire as a product of the First Anglo-Chinese War, also known as the “Opium War”. The legal system so established in Hong Kong under British rule is a direct transplantation of British law, the contours of which have largely remained the same during the 153 years of British sovereignty to date. The Rule of Law has always been a composite concept, containing multiple dimensions, considered by scholars working on vastly different phenomena relating to its conceptual, theoretical, and empirical being, and utilized in equally diverse contexts and settings in achieving an array of objectives. The Rule of Law is often evoked as the foundation of modern legal systems; yet little consensus exists on its content and scope of operation.
