Benny Tai Yiu Ting (戴耀廷)

Biography

He was born and educated in Hong Kong and graduated at the University of Hong Kong with an LL.B. in 1986 and P.C.LL in 1987. He specializes in constitutional law, administrative law, human rights law and law and religion. He was the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Hong Kong from 2000 to 2008. He is most known for initiating the Occupy Central with Love and Peace campaign, a movement to exert pressure on the Chinese authorities to honour the promise of allowing Hong Kong people to elect their Chief Executive in 2017 through universal and equal suffrage. The movement has led to nonviolent occupations, civil disobedience, and demonstrations to combat Beijing’s imposed policies towards the territory. The Occupy Central movement took a large part in supporting the Umbrella Movement in late September to early December 2014 in Hong Kong. His current research projects include rule of law and legal culture, political legitimacy and constitutional development, governance and law, rule of law and religion.

Academic biography

Research topics

1. How should the rule of law be understood? Is achieving justice the ultimate purpose of having law in society? In the understanding of the rule of law, must the legal system also meet other purposes (like providing clear guidance to human behaviour, maintaining social order, or constraining powers) before it can achieve justice?
2. In achieving justice through law, how far the law can protect procedural rights, civil rights, political rights, social and economic rights?
3. How far does the general public embrace the value of achieving justice?

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