City University of Hong Kong sets up Independent Committee to review School of Law issues

The Council of City University of Hong Kong announced its decision to set up an independent committee to review issues surrounding the recent events involving the School of Law.

In addition, the Council endorsed unanimously the President’s decision to accept the report of the Appeal Committee established to consider the appeal cases received from staff members of the School of Law.

The independent review committee should be composed of five members with two from the community, one external member of the Council and two staff representatives. The Chairman of the committee should be one of the external members who comes from the legal profession.

Council Chairman Norman Leung said, “The Council has reached the consensus that the Appeal Committee report has resolved all the appeal cases received from staff members of the School of Law. However, in view of the concerns raised by members of the university and the public on recent events involving the School of Law, we believe that it is important to take a further step to look into the issues that emerged from the School of Law incident. As such, we have accepted the recommendation from the President to set up an independent committee to review the matter comprehensively.”

“The Council is of the view that the chairman of the independent committee should be a reputable legal professional. In order for the committee to discharge its duties effectively, its membership should also include staff representatives of the university who are conversant with the operation of the university.”

Mr Leung reiterated that the independent committee will be answerable to the Council directly, and will be entirely independent.