Hong Kong-Mainland China agreement on mutual recognition and enforcement of judgments

On July 14th, the PRC central government and the Hong Kong government signed an agreement for the mutual recognition and enforcement of commercial and civil court judgments in certain cases. Essentially, the agreement allows parties to choose PRC or HK courts as they would choose an arbitration organ; it will not result in HK courts enforcing PRC judgments against parties that have not bargained for it. I have previously blogged here and here on this subject (including the interesting differences between this agreement and one signed between the central government and Macau) so I won't go on at length here. Please see below for useful web references discussing this agreement; I recommend the commentary by Graeme Johnson as the most complete.

• Chinese text
• English text
• Commentary by Graeme Johnson of Herbert Smith (July 17, 2006)
• Shanghai Daily article (July 15, 2006)
• China Economic Review article (July 14, 2006)
• China Law Blog analysis (July 13, 2006)
• Legalweek.com article (June 29, 2006)

I have discovered that the HK government has a useful web page for mainland-related legal issues generally at http://www.doj.gov.hk/eng/topical/mainlandlaw.htm#mutuallegal.