Yan-Ho Lai

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Fellow (GCAL) at Georgetown University

Hong Kong’s once robust and free-wheeling civil society has been fundamentally reshaped by the 2020 National Security Law, according to this latest GCAL report. Based on dozens of interviews with former civil society activists, most of them now overseas, the report is the first to document the ways in which both the NSL and other legal and extra-le...

The Hong Kong government has effectively weaponized its legal system to crack down on those who took part in the 2019 protests, according to a new report by the Georgetown Center for Asian Law (GCAL). Based on a large body of data, the report provides an in-depth analysis of hundreds of arrests and prosecutions of the men and women – and in scores...

The “One Country, Two Systems” formula in Hong Kong since 1997 used to be an experiment for the People’s Republic of China (China) to promote reunification with Taiwan. However, the degree of self-government, political freedoms, and the rule of law in this semi-autonomous city has drastically deteriorated since China imposed the national security l...

This article examines the nature of the legal system in Hong Kong and its process of autocratisation under the Chinese sovereign. This article suggests that, in colonial and post-colonial times, Hong Kong’s legal system follows the global trend of autocratic legalism that empowers the executive branch to use laws and courts to achieve the governmen...

This article examines the nature of the legal system in Hong Kong and its process of autocratisation under the Chinese sovereign. This article suggests that, in colonial and post-colonial times, Hong Kong’s legal system follows the global trend of autocratic legalism that empowers the executive branch to use laws and courts to achieve the governmen...

This article examines the verdict in HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit, the first criminal trial under the new National Security Law's secession and counter-terrorism criminal provisions. The article uses international human rights law and comparative law on counter-terrorism to argue that the verdict ignores rights-based jurisprudence, which could reconcile t...

In May 2020, the National People’s Congress (NPC) decided to introduce the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” (National Security Law, NSL) and its enforcing institutions in Hong Kong. Instead of local consultation and legislation, the NSL is a national law promulg...

On July 27, 2021, Tong Ying-kit became the first person to be convicted of a crime under Hong Kong’s National Security Law. Tong was convicted of inciting secession under Article 21 of the NSL, and of terrorism under Article 24. He was later sentenced to 9 years in prison. Immediately after the verdict was issued, Tong’s lawyer announced that he wo...

June 23, 2021 may eventually be seen as a turning point in Hong Kong’s legal and political history: that day marked the opening of the first trial under Hong Kong’s new National Security Law (NSL). The defendant in the case, Tong Ying-kit, 24, had been charged with terrorism and inciting secession, and also with dangerous driving under the local Ro...

In 2019, what began in Hong Kong as a series of rallies against a proposal to permit extraditions to mainland China grew into a raft of anti-authoritarian protests and challenges to Beijing’s grip on the city. Given the gravest political crisis confronting Hong Kong in decades, this research investigates why the protests have lacked centralized lea...

Tensions between developing spiritual growth and civil resistance often occur when spirituality is perceived as merely a personal pursuit of internal tranquillity and transcendence while civil resistance is regarded as generating confrontations, struggles and sometimes violence against political authority. Such tensions become more prominent in the...

By using a survey of more than 700 Christians active in the anti-extradition movement of Hong Kong, this project answers two questions: (1) why Christians in Hong Kong, who are seemingly conservative and indifferent in public affairs, highly engaged in the anti-extradition movement this summer? (2) How does the Christian identity contribute to this...

The roles of lawyers in social movements are often focused on aspects of litigation and judicial justice. Their non-litigational contributions and engagement in social movements are under-researched. Against the backdrops of deteriorating human rights protections and the rule of law after the 2014 Occupy Movement and the outbreak of anti-extraditio...

This paper explains the strategies and tactics of civil society in Hong Kong against China’s authoritarian rule, by an empirical study of the anti-extradition protests in 2019, in order to understand how civil society resists authoritarian governance by sustaining protests. After the famous occupy movement in 2014, civil society of Hong Kong underw...

Purpose Despite the preservation of “One Country, Two Systems” for 50 years under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law, changes are palpable due to the emergence of a real contest between liberal and pro-China actors in the legal profession and the legal environment in Hong Kong. After celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’...

This paper explains the strategies and tactics of Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protests in 2019, in order to understand how movement sustains in face of authoritarian governance. After the famous occupy movement in 2014, Hong Kong society underwent series of political repression by the authority. However, the waves of protest against the extraditio...

The concept of ‘China factor’, which is derived from the work of the Taiwanese scholar WU Jieh-min, refers to the political strategy of People’s Republic of China (PRC) over other regions and countries by creating the latter’s economic dependence. This paper offers a preliminary research on PRC’s political economic strategy, which is regarded as th...

This paper evaluates the different tactics of hybrid regime to cope with contentious politics by legal means. The author suggests that hybrid regimes can repress political opposition by legal instruments without creating political instability. By using a method of triangulation between history, media and case law, the author traces the institutiona...

Purpose - Rule of Law and judicial independence are seen as essential values for the judiciary in liberal democracies, and give confidence to protestors and civil disobedient in access to justice. On the contrary, law and courts in authoritarian regimes are often regarded as political instruments of the state to preserve their power and suppress po...

“Crony Capitalism and Democratic Movement in Hong Kong”. Guest Lecture at the Department of Politics, University of Surrey, UK. Date: 10th May 2018.

Democratic consolidation, which follows democratization, consists of both institutionalisation and internationalization of democratic norms and values in the state and society, and individual citizens as well. Civil society therefore plays a major role in ‘deepening democracy’ through civil engagement, empowerment of citizenship and multiple forms...