Beginning with Ng Ka Ling, this episode traces the Court of Final Appeal’s judgments and the Hong Kong government’s response to explain the first NPC Standing Committee interpretation of the Basic Law. It examines how final adjudication and final interpretive authority coexist after the handover, and how constitutional disputes affect families on either side of the border.
On October 28, 1977, more than two thousand Hong Kong police officers and family members petitioned at Police Headquarters, after which some protesters stormed the ICAC Operations Department. Beginning with Peter Godber’s escape, the creation of the ICAC, and the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market Case, this episode examines how Hong Kong built an independent anti-corruption system—and the price that reform exacted as the government tried both to pursue old cases and preserve public order.
In 1993, twelve Japanese women who had spent decades in China arrived at Narita Airport without resettlement sponsors or places to live. Their decision to return before those arrangements were in place exposed the barriers facing Japanese women left behind in China and pressed the government to take greater responsibility for their repatriation and resettlement.
In January 2007, forty Japanese war orphans repatriated from China lost their state redress case before the Tokyo District Court. Beginning with the three names of Sumie Ikeda, this episode traces the gaps between war responsibility, repatriation policy, state redress, and political settlement—and asks how law can respond to a generation of shattered lives.
Tracing the path from temporary-residence registration through temporary-residence permits to today's residence permits, this article examines how a single document shifted from a population-control tool to a bridge between long-term residents and urban public services.