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The Legal System
skills. Course participants included government officials from the Mainland, ASEAN countries, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Hong Kong, as well as local and overseas legal and mediation practitioners.
In order to attract quality talent, the government published a Talent List in August. The Talent List accords successful applicants immigration facilitation under the Immigration Department's Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, covering dispute resolution professionals specialising in resolving international financial and investor-state disputes and transactional lawyers, including those from developing countries in the Belt and Road region, with specialised knowledge of and experience in cross-border transactions from investing or host states.
An Inclusive Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Office will be established in January 2019 directly under the Secretary for Justice, to better cope with the challenges and to harness the additional opportunities offered by the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan. The office will be tasked to raise Hong Kong's international profile in deal-making and dispute resolution by way of cooperation or partnership with other jurisdictions and international organisations. It will organise, support and encourage important international capacity-building events in Hong Kong.
The Arbitration and Mediation Legislation (Third Party Funding) (Amendment) Ordinance, gazetted on 23 June 2017, clarifies that third party funding of arbitration and mediation in Hong Kong is not prohibited by the common law doctrines of maintenance and champerty, adding to Hong Kong's attractiveness as an international legal and dispute resolution centre. The Code of Practice for Third Party Funding of Arbitration was issued on 7 December 2018 after a two- month public consultation, while the new provisions relating to third party funding of arbitration will come into operation on 1 February 2019.
The new West Kowloon Mediation Centre started operation in November to promote the use of mediation and enhance public awareness of mediation. It is a purpose-built mediation facility for a pilot scheme to provide mediation services to litigants of Small Claims Tribunal cases that are suitable for mediation and other suitable cases, and is run by an independent coordinator appointed by the Department of Justice.
Enhancement of Hong Kong-Mainland Cooperation
To promote Hong Kong as an ideal hub for making deals and resolving disputes in the Greater Bay Area, the department held the 5th biennial Hong Kong Legal Services Forum, its flagship event in the Mainland, in Guangzhou on 5 September, registering a record high of over 1,200 participants. The business and legal sectors showed a keen interest in the topics featured, including a mock arbitration, tailored specifically for Mainland enterprises, and they also had a useful exchange with legal and dispute resolution professionals from Hong Kong.
The department also contributes to the strengthening of the legal cooperation between Hong Kong and the Mainland so that civil and commercial disputes with a cross-boundary dimension can be dealt with more effectively. On 31 July, a two-month public consultation began on a proposed arrangement to establish a mechanism for the recognition and enforcement of judgments in a wider range of civil and commercial matters not already provided for between
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