By Jerome A. Cohen
Here is the recent news about Johannes Chan’s departure from Hong Kong University. He is a wonderful scholar and long-term, courageous critic of the PRC’s increasing repression in Hong Kong. Before, during, and after his distinguished service as the eminent Hong Kong University Law School’s dean, his published analyses have provided invaluable insights into Beijing’s manipulations of the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law and the former UK colony’s traditional legal system. At 62, he is at the top of his form. Yet the university’s political leaders have now diminished his status to, at best, that of a part-time adjunct lecturer. They previously rejected the formal recommendation that, after his deanship, he would become one of the university’s most prominent administrators. How far the discrimination against him will go is hard to say. Some time ago he was even denied entry into Macao on national security grounds.
Professor Chan would grace the faculty of any law school anywhere and will undoubtedly have opportunities to teach in many common law countries, as many prematurely “retired” HKU professors have done. I have no idea what his plans might be but hope that he will not leave Hong Kong unless, like some other invaluable human rights advocates there, he believes his personal security is threatened by government prosecution. Hong Kong’s embattled barristers will surely welcome his newly-liberated participation in their efforts to slow the process of dictatorial controls.