Reforming directors' duties in Hong Kong : the journey, stakeholders and oversights

Hong Kong is a small jurisdiction; however, this territory is one of the world's international financial centres and thus corporate governance law reform in Hong Kong should be of interest to international investors. Undoubtedly, directors' duties in Hong Kong are a product of its colonial legacy. The goal of the colonial administrators, according to Faure and Lee, was to establish uniformity in company laws among the commercial centres of the British Empire,1 as well as safeguarding British interests in the colony.2 In spite of recession of the territory to Chinese rule, the preoccupation with adopting British laws as a benchmark for Hong Kong continued. This could be due to corporate law reformers' predisposition towards Hong Kong's corporate governance and structures remaining similar to their British counterparts, or there may be more important reasons for doing so.