As a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong has its own legal system rooted in the common law. Reforms to this system take into account Hong Kong's unique conditions as an international city and draw widely on practices around the world. Since 1980 recommendations from a Law Reform Commission, chaired by the Secretary for Justice, have resulted in comprehensive revisions in key areas of law, ranging from commercial arbitration and interception of communications to divorce and copyright.

Recently, however, the government has been slow to act on the Commission's recommendations....