The Freest Market in the World

The Constitutional Logic of Economic Liberty in China's Hong Kong

Gonzalo Villalta Puig, Eric Ip

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781000823981
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Derecho
• Subtopic: Teoría y práctica del derecho

On the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, this book presents the first monographic study of the Hong Kong Basic Law as an economic document. The Basic Law codifies what Gonzalo Villalta Puig and Eric C Ip call free market constitutionalism, the logic of Hong Kong's economic liberty as the freest market economy in the world.

This book, which is the outcome of several years of study with the financial support of the General Research Fund of Hong Kong's Research Grants Council, evaluates the public choice rationale of the Basic Law and its projection on the Hong Kong economy, with a focus on the policy development of economic liberty both internally and externally. In the academic tradition of James M Buchanan's constitutional political economy, the book opens with a conceptualisation of free market constitutionalism in Hong Kong. It studies the origins of this concept in the 19th-century classically liberal common law and how it developed into a Hayekian laissez-faire convention under British colonial rule, was codified into the Basic Law and is interpreted and applied by the branches of the Government of the Region. The book closes with remarks on the future of Hong Kong's free market constitutionalism in face of recent challenges as the year 2047 approaches and the 50 years of 'unchanged' capitalist system under the Basic Law pass.

This book will appeal to students, scholars and practitioners of law, economics, political science and public administration. It will especially appeal to those with an interest in Hong Kong law, international economic law or comparative constitutional law.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• About the Authors
• Forewords
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. The Concept of Free Market Constitutionalism in Hong Kong under Chinese Sovereignty
• 2. The Victorian Origins AND HAYEKIAN DEVELOPMENT of Hong Kong’s Free Market Constitutionalism
• 3. The Codification of Free Market Constitutionalism in the Hong Kong Basic Law
• 4. The Interpretation and Application of Free Market Constitutionalism in the Hong Kong Basic Law
• 5. Free Market Constitutionalism and Hong Kong’s Internal Economic Policy
• 6. Free Market Constitutionalism and Hong Kong’s External Economic Policy
• 7. The Future of Free Market Constitutionalism in Hong Kong
• Index