Convocation Newsletter, Summer 2019

Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa Dr David Sin 冼為堅 The Chairman of Myer Jewelry Manufacturer Limited is a business leader and advocate of higher education. The Sin Wai Kin Fund and Sin Wai Kin Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Humanities were established to support the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at HKU. Professor Andrew Michael Spence 安德魯・米高・斯彭思 The Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences is a world authority on growth in developing countries and on the convergence between advanced and developing economies. He is the Co-Chair of the Advisory Council of the Asia Global Institute, HKU. Depending on the facts of any given case, some considerations will prevail over others and, sometimes, a balancing exercise is required to be undertaken. It is, however, important at all times for judges to be even- handed and, just as important, seen to be so. This is why the independence of the Judiciary is important in order to ensure that all cases that come before the courts, be they controversial or not, are decided strictly according to the law and legal principle, and nothing else. I mentioned just now that a balancing exercise may sometimes have to be performed. This approach is to recognise the validity and legitimacy of all reasonable points of view which a judge may have to take into account in the determination of a legal dispute. Broadly speaking, it is a recognition that not only individual rights have to be considered, but also the rights and interests of other members of the community and the community as a whole. And this, surely, must be how a community should be expected to function: as I have often said in the past, Full speech and citations there should be not only a respect for one's own rights and freedoms but also the rights and freedoms of others. After all, the guarantee of equality emphasised and repeated in the Basic Law and in the Bill of Rights reflects the basic assumptions of tolerance, respect and compromise. These are the assumptions behind a sense of community. My fellow graduates and I believe in this sense of community. The Asia Global Institute has this theme as part of its mission; the study of humanities aims at promoting this concept; and the Judiciary has this objective underlying much of its work: we call it part of the spirit of the law. I believe this is what the University also expects of its graduates. www4.hku.hk/hongrads/ Convocation Newsletter 13