Welcome Message from the AIIFL Director

Welcome to the official website of the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL). I am the Director of AIIFL, taking effect from 1 July 2021.

Founded in 1999, AIIFL has the following primary objectives:

• To support and enhance the development of the Faculty and University’s expertise in business, corporate and financial law;
• To assist in and make contributions to present and future law reforms in Hong Kong, including but not limited to Hong Kong-China cross-border issues;
• To enhance the research environment for faculty staff, especially AIIFL members and fellows, and to explore interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects with internal and external partners that focus on local, regional and international issues;
• To promote world-class and internationally leading publications in AIIFL’s focus and interested areas;
• To support the sharing of knowledge in business, commercial, corporate and financial law matters by actively engaging with academic communities around the world through inter-faculty educational programmes and research projects;
• To facilitate the sharing of knowledge, information and experience with local and international regulators, policy makers, NGOs, research institutes and business communities for the cultivation of human values, financial inclusion culture and professional standards; and
• To support sustainable developments of economic and financial law and policy in the common law world and Asian-Pacific region, and thereby economic development, especially in China and other parts of Asia (such as Singapore, Japan and Korea), through relevant research and public services.

AIIFL is the second oldest research centre at the Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, with special focus areas in corporate law (including restructuring and insolvency) and financial law (including FinTech, RegTech, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital corporate governance). Under the Faculty Dean’s new initiative, AIIFL will also become a base for private law, broadly defined.

Other than the focus areas, AIIFL’s interested areas include, inter alia, comparative corporate governance and financial law, consumer interests, digitalised economy, data and privacy protection, virtual banking, open banking, financial inclusion, law and economics, secured transactions, tax, dispute resolution, BigTech and competition, Greater Bay Area, Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) standards and green finance.

AIIFL will continue supporting economic developments through better business, corporate and financial law and policy, focusing on the following research programmes:

• Corporate Law and Corporate Governance
• Consumer Law and Policy
• Competition and Antitrust
• East Asian International Economic Law and Policy (EAIEL) Programme
• Financial Law and Regulation
• Insolvency and Restructuring
• Insurance Law and Regulation
• One-Belt One-Road
• Real Estate Law and Finance
• Taxation Law Research Programme (TLRP)

We hold a wide range of events including conferences, public lectures and seminars on these related research areas. We strive to generate more research activities in the years to come.

We look forward to your continuous and steadfast support. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding AIIFL, please email us at aiiflhku@hku.hk.

Dr Emily Lee
Director