Law,Politics and Professional Projects: The Legal Profession in Hong Kong

This article attempts to theorize on the Hong Kong legal profession by examining the changing positions and roles of lawyers in three episodes of Hong Kong's recent legal history: use of Chinese as a legal language, the right of abode issue and the right of audience debate. In developing an indigenous theory (or indigenizing western theories), I suggest, attention must be paid to the social context - the long use of English as the sole legal language in a predominately Chinese-speaking society, and the special social-political functions of law in defending Hong Kong from China and of being a source of legitimacy for the government - in which Hong Kong lawyers find themselves and which distinguish them from their western counterparts. Thus, the theoretical framework I develop is one based on the concept of professional project, with due recognition to the social-political functions of the law in Hong Kong. I also argue that the concept of 'social capital' could provide a crucial connection between a Weberian self-interested reading and a Durkheimian altruistic reading of Hong Kong lawyers. It is further suggested that the framework, though inevitably of limited applicability to other societies, may shed light on the role of lawyers in other countries where law has also assumed a particular significance as a source of legitimacy for government.