Hong Kong Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah says electoral reform will help bring back rational debates to the city's legislature during an interview with China Daily on Friday. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)
HONG KONG – Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, secretary for justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, said on Thursday that the HKSAR Legislative Council (LegCo) earlier passed the Mainland Judgments in Matrimonial and Family Cases (Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement) Ordinance, which is in the interest of parties to cross-boundary marriages and their families.
Cheng said the ordinance’s sections deal with the recognition and enforcement of mainland judgments, the recognition of mainland divorce certificates, and facilitation of recognition and enforcement in the mainland of Hong Kong judgments.
The law would mitigate the impact of a divorce on the parties to the marriage and their children, said Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah
Cheng said parties to cross-boundary marriages and their children will benefit from the passage of the ordinance.
By providing a more expeditious and cost effective mechanism for parties to apply in the Hong Kong courts for the recognition and enforcement of judgments given by the mainland courts in matrimonial and family cases, the ordinance will reduce the need for divorce and related proceedings to be brought in both Hong Kong and the mainland, she said.
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This would mitigate the impact of a divorce on the parties to the marriage and their children, she added.
Cheng said the ordinance is a crucial step towards implementing the "Arrangement on Reciprocal Recognition and Enforcement of Civil Judgments in Matrimonial and Family Cases by the Courts of the Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" that was signed by Hong Kong and the mainland.
The successful implementation of the arrangement once again demonstrates that Hong Kong and mainland strive to foster mutual legal assistance in civil and commercial matters in accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle on the basis of mutual understanding and respect, so as to complement the needs that arise from social developments in both societies, Cheng said.
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