【Eye On U】活用「兩制」優勢 吸引外來投資 法治研究律師：香港為熱門商業糾紛仲裁地
當我們談及香港的競爭優勢時，法治總是最先被提及的因素之一。要保持香港的長期繁榮和穩定，除了要有健全的法律機構、不受任何干擾的檢察權和獨立的司法機構外，我們還需要公眾遵守法律，增強對法治概念的認可和應用。不過，本地智庫智經研究中心在2019年12月進行的一項名為「市民對香港法治狀況意見調查」的研究表明，近年來香港社會缺乏法治教育，並呼籲政府有必要加強市民的法治教育。
今期節目邀請到香港政策研究所法治研究中心主任陳澤銘律師作為節目嘉賓，一起來探討有關香港法治的意義和重要性。
主持︰By comparison to HK's rule of law to the Mainland, how are we going to merge the two systems, or whether there is a future of merging the two systems of rule of law in mainland China and HK? And how can the business in HK follow the rule of law in mainland China?
通過比較香港的法治和內地的法治，我們如何把這兩種體系結合起來？或者說，未來是否有可能將內地和香港這兩種法治體系融會貫通？以及香港的企業如何能夠遵循內地的法治？
嘉賓︰I think, again, that's a very good question, especially for foreign investors. I think they choose HK because of a number of reasons. One of the reasons we've been talking about today is the rule of law. They know that HK has a good reputation for that.
我認為這又是一個非常好的問題，特別是對外國投資者而言。我認為他們選擇香港是基於很多原因的，其中一個原因就是我們今天一直在討論的法治，他們知道香港在這方面有很好的聲譽。
Just give you a recent survey, I think it's the Queen Mary University of London. They conducted a survey of the choice of arbitration seat. They asked business people if you have a dispute, you want to arbitrate your commercial dispute, where do you go? New York, London, Paris, these are all the very common places, but HK is also very popular. It always ranks number three, number four. I think it came third in the latest survey, the most popular seat for arbitration. And there's a reason for it.
最近有一個應該是倫敦瑪麗王后大學做的調查，對仲裁地的選擇做了一個調查。他們問商業人士，如果你有糾紛，想進行仲裁，你會去哪裏。紐約、倫敦、巴黎都是很常見的選項，但香港也非常受歡迎，總是排在第三四位，而最近的最受歡迎仲裁地調查中排名第三，這是有原因的。
For international investors, they choose HK because HK is a common law jurisdiction. In fact, HK is the only common law jurisdiction within the whole China. Common law is very familiar by Western societies, they like that familiarity so they choose HK for that reason.
對於國際投資者來說，他們選擇香港，因為香港是普通法的司法管轄區。事實上，香港是全中國唯一的普通法司法管轄區。西方社會對普通法系相當熟悉，因為這種熟悉，所以他們選擇香港。
There are other reasons. For example, HK's freedom of the foreign exchange, HK dollar is packed to US dollar, English is alongside Chinese, both are official languages in HK. These are all advantages for HK. But rule of law and the separate common law system from the Mainland is quite unique, and this is actually protected under the "one country, two systems".
當然還有其他原因，比如說香港的外匯自由度、港幣與美元掛鈎、英文與中文都是香港的官方語言，這些都是香港的優勢。不過，香港的法治以及與內地不同的普通法系是很獨特的，而這一點實際上是受到「一國兩制」保護。
We have a very different system from the Mainland, even though we are one country. HK definitely is part of China, but we operate under a different system, and that's allowed under the "one country, two systems".
我們有一個與內地非常不同的制度，儘管我們是同一個國家，香港絕對是中國的一部分，但我們在不同的制度下運作，而這是在「一國兩制」下允許的。
I always said that we operate slightly differently. But on the other hand, like you said, HK is actually getting closer to Shenzhen, Qianhai. And some of the elements are actually becoming more common. For example, the HK Department of Justice. What they're trying to promote is, if there is a HK business in Shenzhen, doing business with the Shenzhen local businesses. When they sign their contract, maybe they can consider using HK law, maybe they can even think if there's a dispute, they can actually resolve that dispute in a Shenzhen court using HK law. So from that angle, there's some sort of merging some sort of integration, maybe you can say that. But after all HK still maintains its own common law tradition. And that's protected, like I said, under the Basic Law. And to me, I think I'm very very optimistic of this new initiative.
我總是說，我們的運作方式略有不同，但另一方面，正如你所說，香港實際上越來越接近深圳、前海，而且很多方面實際上也在趨向一致。比如說香港的律政司就正努力推動一件事，如果深圳有一間香港企業與深圳本地企業開展業務，當他們簽署合同時，也許他們可以考慮使用香港法律，如果有爭議的話，他們甚至可以在深圳法院用香港法律來解決這個糾紛。所以從這個角度來看，是的，有某種程度的融合，但畢竟香港仍然保持着自己的普通法傳統，而就像我說的，這是受基本法保護的，對我來說，我對這個新的倡議非常樂觀。
◆ 點新聞英文節目《EyE on U 容來熙往》，由立法會議員容海恩及梁熙主持，邀請香港社會各界包括政界、商界及專業人士，分享及討論社會熱話。
