As the annual signature event of the Asian Academy of International Law, 2020 Colloquium on International Law (the Colloquium) gathered an array of highly distinguished speakers and attracted almost 500 online audiences, including academics, legal practitioners, business professionals and government officials, coming from 39 jurisdictions.

While mankind has been facing unprecedented challenges on various front this year, the Colloquium provided a timely response to address one of the pressing issues, i.e. Sanctions. Our world is indeed one and interdependent, relying heavily on global cooperation for the common good; however, the recent increasing use of unilateral sanctions proposed by certain countries has been escalating international tension and divergence. Against this background, our speakers provided the audiences with very informative presentation and insightful discussion on the topical issue of sanctions in the context of international law.

After the Welcome Remarks delivered by Dr Anthony NEOH QC SC JP and Professor HUANG Jin, Opening Address was delivered by the Honourable Mrs Carrie LAM-CHENG Yuet-ngor GBM GBS, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR); followed by Keynote Addresses delivered by Mr XIE Feng, Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the HKSAR and Ms Teresa CHENG GBS SC JP, Secretary for Justice of the HKSAR.

The panel discussion was moderated by Dr NEOH and participated by five speakers (1) Professor Jean-Marc THOUVENIN, Secretary-General, The Hague Academy of International Law; (2) Professor Sienho YEE, Professor of International Law, China Foreign Affairs University; (3) Professor KONG Qingjiang, Dean of the School of International Law, China University of Political Science and Law; (4) Mr Martin ROGERS, Partner of Davis Polk; and (5) Professor Chin Leng LIM, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.