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About 100 participants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North America, Europe and Australia will gather at The Chinese University of Hong Kong from Friday 16 March to Sunday 18 March for a ground-breaking conference on “Crime, Law and Justice in Chinese Societies: Global Challenges and Local Responses.” The opening ceremony and a public seminar on “Challenges Facing the Legal System in China: Implications for Reform” will be held on 16 March at 6:00 pm at CUHK's Graduate Law Centre in the Bank of America Tower in Central. Four distinguished speakers are invited to address this topic: Professor Mike McConville, Simon F.S. Li Professor of Law, and Director of the School of Law at CUHK; Professor James O. Finckenauer, Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, and Past-President of the U.S.-based Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences; Professor Chen Guangzhong, Professor Emeritus and former President of the China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing; and Professor S.K. Lau, Head of the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong SAR Government, and Professor of Sociology at CUHK. Local and foreign professionals in the legal, judiciary and social service fields in Hong Kong will also join this seminar.

Jointly organized by the School of Law and the Department of Sociology at CUHK, and sponsored by the Hong Kong-America Center and Chung Chi College of CUHK, the conference provides a useful opportunity for scholars and professionals in the fields of law and criminal justice to exchange ideas and findings concerning crime, law and justice in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other Chinese societies. A highlight of the Saturday morning session will be a video conference involving participants attending the Hong Kong conference and their counterparts attending the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Seattle, Washington. The title of the video conference is “The Globalization of Crime: American and Chinese Perspectives.” Each side will organize a panel comprising four or five speakers and a moderator. The video conference will allow panelists and other conference participants in Hong Kong to engage in direct discussion with their American counterparts.

It is highly appropriate for Hong Kong to host an international conference on crime, law and justice in Chinese societies, as these societies have experienced phenomenal economic growth in the past 30 years. Such growth has brought with it the major challenges to the legal systems that were created initially to serve the requirements of a less demanding time. Crime and criminals have become as mobile and “global,” as legitimate business and businessmen. Policy planners and law enforcement officials have to keep up with developments on the transnational crime front. This conference will bring together scholars and practitioners who think about, and combat, these issues daily. In addition, the conference hopes to foster relationships that will lead to additional sharing of best practices and further collaborative research.