Back in 2013 when I was preparing a proposal seeking research funding to support this archival study, I had an interesting conversation with a colleague who had migrated from England to practise and teach law in Hong Kong forty years ago. After reading my proposal, he ‘advised’ me (as a newly joined faculty member) not to conduct research that sought to condemn the English rule of law. To condemn it, he said, was easy, but in doing so I would leave out the fact that maintaining peace and order sometimes warrants a departure from the rule of law.