It is likely that no criminal behaviour breeds as much condemnation and fear as sex offences. Tragic examples of young victims of sex offenders from around the world have raised societal concerns and prompted calls for increased surveillance and control. It is responsible public policy to address these concerns in ways that will increase public protection and allay unnecessary fears. The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, the paper examines Hong Kong’s recently implemented Sexual Conviction Record Check Scheme against the Territory’s low crime victimization rate. Second, it compares the Scheme with pre-employment screening checks in Australia and the UK. The paper finally concludes with proposals for changes to the Scheme.

This paper dispels the myth of liberal Enlightenment in relation to penal law reforms in colonial India by advancing two sets of argument. First, the liberal project of codification on the basis of universalist notion of utilitarianism never broke with cultural hierarchy inbuilt in the very act of colonisation. In this paper, I specifically look into the emerging phenomenon of evolutionary science in the nineteenth century – social Darwinism – to explain the dominant normative, as opposed to realist, justification of such racial hierarchy in colonial discourses since the nineteenth century. Second, using Dipesh Chakrabarty’s theoretical framework, I provincialise the penal law reform project in colonial India through the examination of literature in the field, and substantiate how the notion of utilitarian universality remained vague and unpromising in face of instrumental needs on ground – both in the colony and in the metropolis. Taken together, these propositions dispel the myth of the liberal project of penal law reforms in colonial India based on this universalist position and underscore the fallacies of the transition narrative of modernity itself.

Hong Kong recently amended its Domestic Violence Ordinance (“DVO”). During the deliberations, the issue of whether protection under the DVO ought to be extended to same-sex couples arose for discussion and has since been the subject of extensive debate. Religious and conservative groups have argued that including these groups within the DVO risks overhauling the traditional meaning of “family” and could implicitly legitimize same-sex marriage whilst others have insisted that failing to provide equivalent civil remedies under the DVO to such groups amounts to sexual orientation discrimination and is contrary to Hong Kong's international human rights commitments. This paper reviews the various arguments that have been raised against the inclusion of same-sex couples within the DVO and argues that Hong Kong's international and constitutional commitments to the principles of equality and non-discrimination require that samesex couples be brought within the purview of this legislation.

The late 19th century saw the spread of anti-homosexual criminal laws to British colonies. The iconic example was the Indian Penal Code of 1860, with its prohibition of ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature,’ a rewriting of the anti-Catholic ‘buggery’ law of 1534. The language of 377 travelled around the British colonial world. France and certain other parts of Europe had decriminalized homosexual acts a century earlier, so the colonial powers of Europe spoke with different voices. Modern decriminalization is largely the product of the human rights era - sixty years since the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In July 2010 the Timor-Leste Government promulgated the Law Against Domestic Violence. This is part of a constitutional promise to improve women and child security. Inherent in this development is the shift from traditional dispute resolution system to a state criminal justice system. This shift identifies domestic violence as a public crime and relies on greater participation from the stakeholders of domestic violence, i.e., the police, prosecution, legal services, health care services, social care services and community leaders. This paper examines the legal framework of the new domestic violence law and the impact on the stakeholders in delivering the legal obligation to promote women and child security in Timor-Leste. Inherent in this discussion is the question of whether the new law can reform the traditional justice system, change community behaviour and meet the competing challenges of cultural relativism in each district of Timor-Leste.

The death penalty is one of the most contentious issues in Korea. In contrast to other Asian countries, the issue of whether the death penalty should be abolished has been actively debated and reviewed at governmental levels and in civil society. It is important to note that it is not just civic organizations that have begun to favor abolition of the death penalty but also state organizations including the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission. The Constitutional Court has invalidated some disproportionate provisions in relation to the death penalty. Since President Kim Dae-Jung took office in February 1998, there has been an “unofficial moratorium” on executions.

This article provides an overview of the legal regime governing the death penalty and the ongoing debate on the death penalty in Korea. It begins by briefly reviewing international treaties that call for the abolition of the death penalty, contrasting them with the retentionist trend in most Asian countries. It then reviews the major decisions of the Korean Supreme Court and the Korean Constitutional Court. It also discusses recent moves in the National Assembly and the National Human Rights Commission to abolish the death penalty. It suggests that the Korean death penalty debate has potentially significant implications for its retentionist Asian neighbours grappling with similar issues.

This article seeks to explore whether the position of juvenile victims, vis-à-vis the Cambodian criminal law, has changed with the passage of the new criminal legislation and whether this change is positive or otherwise. The quality of this change, henceforth, will demonstrate to the reader whether the overall reform of the juvenile justice component of Cambodia's criminal justice system, which has spanned over the last 15 years and has been funded by the international community, has been a success. The author has limited the scope of this inquiry to a comparison between the various domestic laws applicable to juvenile victims and did not include comparisons with international law, model laws or juvenile laws of other states. Being the first publication of its kind, this analysis limits its claim to the analysis of the relevant statutory provisions rather than ‘practice notes’ which have yet to develop.