Priscilla Leung


Priscilla Leung Mei-fun is a barrister and Hong Kong Legislative Councillor, representing the Kowloon West constituency since 2008. She was a member of Kowloon City District Council.

Legal career

Leung began her legal career in the China department at the law firm Johnson Stokes & Master. She is a barrister and an associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong's School of Law, where her husband, Wang Guiguo, was the Dean. She has taught at the School of Law for the past 24 years and specialises in Chinese Law, Hong Kong Basic Law and conflict of laws between mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
She was editor-in-charge of the Chinese Law Reports from 1993.

Political career

Leung has been a Legislative Councillor since 2008, currently representing the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong. The 'independent' label she first stood under was challenged by political opponents who accused her of having the support of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government and the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. Leung has been a supporter of most governments bills.
Leung is a social conservative, opposed to same-sex marriage and equal rights for same-sex couples. In 2019, she criticised the Airport Authority and the MTR Corporation for reversing their decision to ban a Cathay Pacific ad featuring a same-sex couple holding hands. Former lawmaker Cyd Ho remarked, "People like Priscilla Leung, who dare to teach law at university and get enough votes to sit in Legco, have no idea about human rights or equality."
She is chairman of the Legislative Council's Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services.
Leung was active in opposition to the pro-democracy Occupy Central/Umbrella movements that culminated in widespread protests in 2014.

Controversies

On 13 January 2010, fellow legislator Albert Chan said that some people "教狗屎法律", literally, "teach dog shit law", in an apparent reference to Leung. Chan refused to withdraw his comment and LegCo president Tsang Yok-sing subsequently ruled that no LegCo rules had been violated. Leung, along with six other legislators, then protested against Tsang's decision, insisting that Albert Chan had defamed her, and walked out of the chamber to boycott the meeting.

LegCo members' resignations and by-election

On 21 January 2010, in a response to the quasi-referendum on universal suffrage, triggered by the resignation of five pan-democrat members of LegCo, Leung announced she would introduce a private member's bill to forbid legislators who resign from running in elections in the same four-year term. Ronny Tong criticised her move as a contravention of the Basic Law: he said such a bill would infringe the right to stand for elections protected under Article 26 and would be inconsistent with Article 74 which prohibits individual legislators from tabling bills that relate to the political structure.
A less-extreme government bill, imposing a six-month prohibition on running for election after resignation, was passed in May 2012, in the face of filibustering efforts from legislators Leung Kwok-hung and Albert Chan.

Scouts for Occupy Central Movement

In July 2014, she championed the Hong Kong Government's establishment of the "Voluntary Scouts".

Education

Leung published different articles and books, in English and Chinese, on the areas of Chinese Law, Hong Kong Basic Law and conflict of laws between mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Leung was awarded the Ten Outstanding Young Persons award for the year 2000 by the Christian group Junior Chamber International Hong Kong who, in 2015, claimed membership of about 2,000.