Hong Kong bilingual legislation and plain language drafting: A communicative approach

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 681-700
Author(s):  
Clara Ho-yan Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Communicative Approach ◽  
Using Data

Abstract This paper proposes law drafting techniques, especially in Chinese, that aim to enhance the fluency and readability of Hong Kong bilingual legislation. The study is based on the plain language guide published by the Department of Justice of Hong Kong in 2012, with the goal of helping the current legislation to comply with the guidelines. Using data from seven recently-enacted ordinances, the analysis illustrates drafting techniques for their English and Chinese versions in accordance with the plain language guide published by the Department of Justice. This process is accomplished by suggesting revisions for relevant Chinese sections of legislation and their corresponding English sections according to contrasting aspects of English and Chinese grammars. The discussion will also evaluate the plain language drafting and the overall theoretical and philosophical trend of law drafting in Hong Kong, in light of the “Seven Standards of Textuality” proposed by de Beaugrande and Dressler. This is believed to be the first undertaking to study plain legal language against its official guidelines in the Hong Kong context.

Language Teaching during a Pandemic: A Case Study of Zoom Use by a Secondary ESL Teacher in Hong Kong

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822098178
Author(s):  
Anisa Cheung
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Technology Integration ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Pedagogical Beliefs ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Synchronous Online

This article reports a case study of an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Hong Kong who conducted lessons via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focused on the factors influencing her technology integration in synchronous online teaching mode. Using data from classroom recordings, stimulated-recall and semi-structured interviews, this study uncovered how Zoom functioned as a substitute for face-to-face lessons. The findings revealed that although there were fewer interactions between the teacher and her students, teaching in synchronous online mode provided the teacher with opportunities to utilize certain online features to augment methods of checking student understanding. The study identified the teacher’s pedagogical beliefs, the context and professional development as factors that influenced the level of technology integration in her Zoom classes. The study concludes that embracing process-oriented pedagogies may be necessary for a higher level of technology integration among ESL teachers who have adequate professional development opportunities and school support.

U.S. Political Corruption and Audit Fees

2020 ◽  
pp. 0000-0000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Jha ◽  
Manoj Kulchania ◽  
Jared Smith
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Additional Risk ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The U.S

Using data on corruption convictions from the U.S. Department of Justice, we find that auditors charge higher fees when a firm is headquartered in a more corrupt district. This result is robust to a wide range of time and location fixed effects, using capital city isolation as an instrument, and propensity score matching. We also find that, relative to those in non-corrupt districts, firms in corrupt districts are more likely to have weak internal controls and to restate earnings and that their auditors exert greater effort. This evidence suggests that auditing firms in corrupt areas entails additional risk, which auditors price into fees.

scholarly journals Crisis determination and financial contagion: an analysis of the Hong Kong and Tokyo stock markets using an MSBVAR approach

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haytem Troug ◽  
Matt Murray
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Stock Markets ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Financial Contagion ◽  
Macroeconomic Factors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Crisis Period ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Using Data

PurposeThe purpose of this paper then, is to add to the existing literature on financial contagion. While a vast amount of the debate has been made using data from the late 1990s, this paper differentiates itself by analysing more current data, centred around the most recent global financial crisis, with specific focus on the stock markets of Hong Kong and Tokyo.Design/methodology/approachEmploying Pearson and Spearman correlation measures, the dynamic relationship of the two markets is determined over tranquil and crisis periods, as specified by an Markov-Switching Bayesian Vector AutoRegression (MSBVAR) model.FindingsThe authors find evidence in support of the existence of financial contagion (defined as an increase in correlation during a crisis period) for all frequencies of data analysed. This contagion is greatest when examining lower-frequency data. Additionally, there is also weaker evidence in some data sub-samples to support “herding” behaviour, whereby higher market correlations persist, following a crisis period.Research limitations/implicationsThe intention of this paper was not to analyse the cause or transmission mechanism of contagion between financial markets. Therefore future studies could extend the methodology used in this paper by including exogenous macroeconomic factors in the MSBVAR model.Originality/valueThe results of this paper serve to explain why the debate of the persistence and in fact existence of financial contagion remains alive. The authors have shown that the frequency of a time series dataset has a significant impact on the level of observed correlation and thus observation of financial contagion.

Parents’ Expectations of Familial Elder Care under the Neoliberal Hong Kong Society

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian W. Y. Leung ◽  
Ching Man Lam ◽  
Yan Liang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Elder Care ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Chinese Populations ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Chinese Parents ◽  
Private Market ◽  
Societal Changes ◽  
Using Data

Previous studies have examined the shifts in traditional familial values among Chinese populations. It was argued that the values have diminished or eroded due to Westernization and modernization. Instead of the collectivist-individualist divide, this study aims to understand the role of neoliberal discourse in Hong Kong Chinese parents’ beliefs in familial values and elder care. Using data from 120 in-depth individual interviews with parents of different generations, this study found four themes: (1) the notion of self-reliance; (2) the intertwinement of neoliberal ideas and filial values; (3) redefinition of filial behaviors; and (4) commodification of care. Results suggest that the changes in parents’ filial beliefs have shifted senior care responsibilities from families to individuals and the private market. It creates a disjuncture between care arrangement and governmental welfare; more comprehensive pension and senior care services are thus needed to respond to societal changes.

The limits of plain legal language: understanding the comprehensible style in law

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 246-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zsolt Ződi
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Plain Language ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Language Understanding ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Legal Texts ◽  
Linguistic Problem ◽  
Technical Rules

AbstractThe comprehensible style of legal texts seems to be a predominantly linguistic problem. This is how the plain-legal-language movements present it. But, while plain-language statutes have been on the agenda for decades in every civilised country, laws still become more and more complicated. The paper attempts to explain this controversy. First, it argues that comprehensibility has more aspects beyond the linguistic or stylistic one. Sometimes it is the linguistically simplest texts that raise the most serious comprehensibility problems. The paper refers to two pieces of corpus linguistic research that provide evidence that vocabulary and grammar in themselves do not explain the incomprehensibility of the legal texts. Second, for a more subtle handling of the comprehensibility problem, the paper offers a framework of three typical pragmatic situations – the processual, the problem-solving and the compliance settings – where comprehensibility problems arise in different ways. The conclusion of the paper is that, contrary to the usual explanation that the main reason for incomprehensibility is that, in law, clarity and accuracy can be only employed at each other's expense, it is rather the systemic and interpretive character of law and the growing importance of technical rules that hinder the understanding of legal texts.

scholarly journals PREPARATION FOR FUTURE IN OLD AGE: WHY AND WHY NOT?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S749-S749
Author(s):  
Helene H Fung
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Older Chinese ◽  
Using Data

Abstract With population aging, many people can expect to spend 30 or more years in old age. The five papers included in this symposium aim at shedding light on whether and how to make plans for old age, using data from the “Aging as Future” Project. First, Park and Hess used data spanning across adulthood from Germany, Hong Kong and the USA to examine how changes experienced in domains of functioning and the importance attached to these domains influenced preparations for old age. Next, de Paula Couto and Rothermund, examining Germans aged 40-90 years, pointed out that prescriptive age stereotypes might be the main drive for why people make preparations for age-related changes. The remaining three papers use qualitative data to qualify the above quantitative findings. Adamson and Ekerdt interviewed older Midwest US residents. They observed that SES greatly impacted how older adults perceived and made plans for their future. The final two papers examined how rural vs. urban contexts might affect preparations for future. Liou interviewed older adults in rural Tainan and found that their ideal old age was one about no future preparation, at least not about making plans for themselves (called “tranquil life”). Ho and colleagues, in contrast, found that for older Chinese residing in urban Hong Kong, not preparing for the future (called “time freeze”) was negatively related to physical and psychological well-being. The symposium will end with an overall discussion on future research directions on whether and how to make plans for old age.

Investigating Public Opinion in Confucian Nations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Adamczyk
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Family Stability ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Global North ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Kinship Ties

A substantial portion of the world’s people reside in countries where Buddhism, Taoism, and systems of ancestral belief dominate. To understand the factors shaping attitudes in these places, this chapter (and the next) examines Confucian nations. These societies (i.e., China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and Hong Kong) are more tolerant than many Islamic, Middle Eastern, and African nations, but they are less supportive than countries in the Global North. Using data from the World Values Survey, this chapter shows that Confucianism has created a culture in which family stability and kinship ties are particularly valued. As a result, concerns about keeping the family intact and the importance of blood relationships are particularly important in shaping residents’ views about homosexuality.

A Replication of “Weathering Corruption” ( Journal of Law and Economics, 2008)

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-626
Author(s):  
Adriana Cordis ◽  
Jeffrey Milyo
Keyword(s):  
Law And Economics ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Postal Service ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Federal Funds ◽  
The Public ◽  
Disaster Assistance ◽  
Public Corruption ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Disaster Aid

Previous research using data on convictions for corruption-related crimes from the Public Integrity Section (PIN) of the Department of Justice points to a positive correlation between the amount of corruption in a state and the amount of federal funds provided to the state for natural disaster relief. We take a closer look at the relationship between public corruption and disaster assistance and find little support for the hypothesis that the provision of federal disaster aid increases public corruption. Our analysis suggests instead that prior evidence of such a link arises from an unexplained correlation during the 1990s between disaster aid and convictions of postal employees for crimes such as stealing mail. Convictions for postal service crimes appear to account for a large fraction of the total federal convictions reported by PIN, which could have far-reaching implications, given that the PIN data have been used so extensively in the corruption literature.

Perceived retirement savings adequacy in Hong Kong: an interdisciplinary financial planning model

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1565-1586 ◽  
Author(s):  
KEE-LEE CHOU ◽  
KAR-MING YU ◽  
WAI-SUM CHAN ◽  
ALFRED M. WU ◽  
ALEX Y. F. ZHU ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Financial Planning ◽  
Retirement Savings ◽  
Fund Managers ◽  
Goal Clarity ◽  
Path Analyses ◽  
Phone Survey ◽  
The Government ◽  
Using Data

ABSTRACTUsing an interdisciplinary model of financial planning, we investigated the factors contributing to perceived adequacy of retirement savings among Hong Kong workers by replicating a previous study of American and Dutch workers. The model was also tested for age differences in the way in which the variables operated within the model. These questions were examined using data from a phone survey conducted with 999 Hong Kong workers in 2012. We examined three psychological factors (future time orientation, goal clarity and financial knowledge), three social support variables (early learning from parents, spousal support and friend support) and three institutional factors (quality of employer pensions, trust in banks and fund managers, and trust in the government), as well as retirement savings planning activity and perceived retirement savings adequacy. Path analyses were used to test the model for the whole sample and separately for younger (N=437) and older (N=562) workers. Although a few age differences were found in the path analyses, the model was found to be useful in explaining the factors contributing to retirement savings planning and practices. Finally, we discuss how our findings differ from those of prior studies, and we assess their theoretical and practical implications.

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