HKHC Speaker’s Series, Dr Ivan Lee, National University of Singapore

HKHC Speaker’s Series, Dr Ivan Lee, National University of Singapore

Ideas of Extradition at the Founding of Colonial Hong Kong

Speaker: Dr Ivan Lee, National University of Singapore
Date and Time: 19 Nov 2025, 3:30 – 5pm (UKT)
Venue: Research Space, Arts Complex, University of Bristol / Zoom
Language: English

Hybrid event. To attend, please register on Ticketpass.

Zoom details:
https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/91288720345?pwd=beKA3LIa8exnwfstdY2ad8K4OJxr1V.1
Meeting ID: 912 8872 0345
Passcode: 095882

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In his new book, Extradition and Empire: Sovereignty and Subjecthood in Hong Kong (Cambridge University Press 2025), Ivan Lee argues that the origins of British rule and sovereignty in Hong Kong can only be understood with reference to the contemporaneous development of British extradition law – a subject long neglected by historians. Between 1842 and 1873, British judges and officials asserted, in evolving and contested ways, the right to surrender or not to surrender, to China and other foreign powers, fugitives taking refuge in the island colony. In doing so, these judges and officials developed extradition law while also delineating the boundaries of British sovereignty. In the mid-nineteenth century, what extradition meant and what British sovereignty meant were, in many ways, two sides of the same coin. The legal debates that pervaded early colonial Hong Kong embodied this intellectual affinity.

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Dr Ivan Lee is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore. His research centres on the history of ideas and practices of criminal law, jurisdiction, and procedure in the British Empire.