Administrative Law in Hong Kong

Stephen Thomson is an associate professor of law at City University of Hong Kong. He is a legal adviser to the Ombudsman of Hong Kong, a member of the Constitutional Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong and an examiner on the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination. His work on administrative law has appeared in a number of leading law journals. Dr Thomson has also written the first and only text on the nobile officium, the extraordinary equitable jurisdiction of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, cited with approval by the Inner House of the Court of Session and the Scottish Land Court. He also advised the Scottish judiciary on reform of civil procedure, his report being appended to a proposal for legislative reform.

'The scholarship displayed in this work is of the highest quality. It is an authoritative text on administrative law in Hong Kong and makes a most important contribution to the learning in this field. It will provide invaluable guidance and assistance to judges, lawyers, public administrators, academics and students. This work will be a leading text and deserves to be widely read and used both in and outside Hong Kong.' Andrew Kwok Nang Li, First Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (1997–2010)

• Foreword; Preface; Table of legislation; Table of international treaties and instruments; Table of cases; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction; Part I. The Constitutional and Administrative Context: 2. Governance and administration in Hong Kong; 3. The constitutional foundation of judicial review in Hong Kong; Part II. Judicial Review: The Leave Stage: 4. The leave stage: principles and procedure; 5. Delay; 6. Standing; 7. Judicial review and the public/private divide; 8. Statutory exclusion of review, non-justiciability and variable intensity of review; 9. Arguability and qualitative filtering; Part III. The Grounds of Judicial Review: 10. Overview of the grounds of judicial review; 11. Excess of power, the limits of discretionary power and non-compliance with statute; 12. Improper purposes, improper motives and abuse of power; 13. Relevance of considerations; 14. Insufficient retention of discretion: unlawful delegation, divestiture and relinquishment; 15. Fettering of discretion; 16. Error of fact and error of law; 17. Legitimate expectations; 18. Unreasonableness and irrationality; 19. Procedural fairness, procedural impropriety and natural justice; Part IV. Judicial Remedies, Non-Judicial Remedies and Subsidiary Legislation: 20. Remedies in judicial review; 21. Administrative tribunals and administrative complaints; 22. Other remedial mechanisms; 23. Subsidiary legislation; Index.