Mathias Cheung is a barrister at Atkin Chambers in London and a BCL graduate from Magdalen College. He has a strong interest in constitutional law, human rights and comparative public law.
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Upsetting the ‘apple’ cart: the latest onslaught on press freedom in Hong Kong
The press is always the first casualty of a new despotism. On 10 August 2020, Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was arrested in Hong Kong – the first in a wave of arrests, while over 100 police officers ...
Rule of Law in Hong Kong’s Brave New World
Hong Kong must have thought to itself, “O brave new world, that has such people in it”, as it listened to a speech by the Director of Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong (“DLO”) in September. “For a correct understanding and ...
Keeping Abreast of Hong Kong’s ‘Breast Assault’ Case: A Legal and Feminist Critique
All men are equal, but some men are more equal than others – others as in women, regrettably. It may not be surprising to find this in a dystopian animal farm, but it is striking to find the slightest suggestion of gender bias in a ...
Hong Kong’s Constitutional Crossroads: to Pocket or Not to Pocket?
On 22 April 2015, the Hong Kong Government finally unveiled the reform package to introduce elections by universal suffrage of the Chief Executive, Hong Kong’s head of government. Currently, the Chief Executive is selected by a ...
Britain’s Human Rights Agenda – Bringing Rights into the Home
In a speech to the UN in 1958, Eleanor Roosevelt famously remarked, “Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home... they are the world of the individual person... Unless these rights have meaning ...
Victory for Islanders’ Homes: Hong Kong Court Rules Against Unlicensed Funeral Parlour
For over 20 years, residents of Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong have performed funeral rites in a makeshift Funeral Pavilion. Located less than 10 metres from homes on a main street, the Pavilion hosts funeral rites late into the ...
Grayling’s Enhance Court Fees: how to pay lip-service to Magna Carta
On 9th March 2015, the Civil Proceedings and Family Proceedings Fees (Amendment) Order 2015 came into force in England and Wales and introduced ‘enhanced’ court fees – enhanced in the quantitative but not the qualitative sense. The ...
The Violence Must Stop – Abuse of Police Power in Hong Kong’s Democracy Protests
In ruling out genuine choice in all future Chief Executive elections in Hong Kong, the Government has done violence to democracy. Now, the Government is doing violence to peaceful protesters in dispersing them.
In defiance of the ...
A Human Rights Defence of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central
With the Hong Kong Government set on introducing an undemocratic electoral reform in the coming months, Professor Benny Tai has proposed to organise a peaceful assembly, ‘Occupy Central with Love and Peace’. It has been condemned and ...
