What happens when liberal constitutional institutions are undone? Can Freedom survive the loss of separation of powers with the associated legal and political accountability? The Chinese Communist Party has been at the forefront in its disdain for liberal institutions and promoting illiberal alternatives. This disdain placed Hong Kong people on the frontlines of the global struggle for freedom. Since its handover from Britain, Hong Kong has felt the brunt of China’s illiberal agenda, recently with increased intensity since the crackdown in 2019, Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law in 2020 and patriots only elections in 2021, and local enactment of Article 23 national security legislation in 2024. Thousands have been jailed and a city famous for vigorous protests has been silenced. Professor Michael Davis takes us on the constitutional journey of both the city’s vigorous defense of freedom and its repressive undoing—a painful loss for Hong Kong and a lesson for the world.

Professor Michael C. Davis is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, a Senior Research Associate at the Weatherhead East Asia Institute, and a Professor of Law and International Affairs at O.P. Jindal Global University in India. Long a public intellectual in Hong Kong, he was a professor in the Law Faculty at the University of Hong Kong until late 2016, and in a visiting capacity until 2020. His scholarship engages a range of issues relating to human rights, the rule of law, and constitutionalism in emerging states, for which he has published several books and numerous articles in leading academic journals. He has also contributed essays and commentary to such widely read public affairs journals as Foreign Affairs and the Journal of Democracy, as well as such popular media as the Washington Post, the New York Times, Nikkei, Apple Daily, and the South China Morning Post, the latter for which he was awarded a 2015 Human Rights Press Award for commentary. As a public intellectual he has appeared for interviews on crucial human rights topics in such broadcast media as CNN, the BBC, NPR, and NBC News. He brings that same in-depth experience to his current book (February 2024), entitled Freedom Undone: The Assault of Liberal Values and Institutions in Hong Kong.

This event is cosponsored by the University of Chicago Law School's International Programs, International Law Society, Human Rights Law Society and the Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression.

Lunch will be provided. Please submit dietary requests eight business days prior to the program to Aican Nguyen at aican@uchicago.edu. Although we will try to accommodate dietary needs, it is not guaranteed.