The Freest Market in the World: The Constitutional Logic of Economic Liberty in China’s Hong Kong

This is the first book about the Hong Kong Basic Law as an economic document. Its publication coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, whose Basic Law serves as the lion rock of what Professors Gonzalo Villalta Puig and Eric C Ip call free market constitutionalism, the foundation of much of the Region’s economic success as the freest market in the world.

The book, which is the outcome of several years of study financed by a General Research Fund from Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council, explores the public choice architecture of the Basic Law as well as its impact on the Hong Kong economy, with particular emphasis on how it facilitates economic liberty internally and free trade externally. Drawing from the academic tradition of Buchanian constitutional political economy, the book traces the origins of Hong Kong’s constitutional principles of economic liberty in the nineteenth century, documenting how they evolved along Hayekian lines under British colonial rule, were codified into the Basic Law, and are interpreted and applied by the various branches of government. 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.

The book will appeal to law students, legal scholars, and legal practitioners, especially to those with an interest in Hong Kong law or international economic law and comparative constitutional law in general.