​The General Assembly of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), at its 85th session, decided on the establishment of the UNIDROIT Asia-Pacific Liaison Office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China. The Office is expected to open at the Hong Kong Legal Hub in the second half of 2026, as part of UNIDROIT's centenary celebration next year.
      
     The proposal for the establishment of the Office was submitted by the Department of Justice (DoJ) of the HKSAR Government to the secretariat of UNIDROIT, with the staunch and unwavering support of the Central People's Government. In May this year, the UNIDROIT Governing Council expressed support for the proposal and recommended it to the General Assembly for decision at its 85th session held on December 11. The decision by the General Assembly in accepting the recommendation has marked the first regional presence of UNIDROIT outside its seat in Rome in its 100 years of history.

     China has been a member of UNIDROIT since 1986. The HKSAR has participated in the work of UNIDROIT as part of the Chinese delegation. In recent years, the DoJ has been collaborating closely with UNIDROIT, including co-organising biennial Asia-Pacific International Private Law Summits in the HKSAR since 2022 and joint seminars in Rome in 2023 and 2025, as well as seconding legal professionals from both the private and public sectors in the HKSAR to the secretariat of UNIDROIT annually, pursuant to the Memoranda of Understanding signed between the DoJ and UNIDROIT in 2021 and 2022. It is anticipated that the establishment of the Office in 2026 will further strengthen the existing collaborative relationship between the DoJ and UNIDROIT in the years to come.
      
     Hosting UNIDROIT's first overseas office in the HKSAR is a significant milestone for the city's development as a legal hub, as it reflects the international community's continued confidence in the HKSAR's legal system and reinforces its position as a leading international legal hub. The Office will establish a stable physical presence of UNIDROIT in the Asia-Pacific region to more efficiently and effectively support its work in the region. It could also contribute to facilitating co-ordination and creating synergies among the "three sisters of private international law", namely UNIDROIT, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), at the Hong Kong Legal Hub, which has already housed the HCCH Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the DoJ Project Office for Collaboration with UNCITRAL. 
      
     UNIDROIT is an independent intergovernmental organisation with its seat in Rome. Currently, UNIDROIT has 65 member states from five continents. The purpose of UNIDROIT is to study the needs and methods for modernising, harmonising and co-ordinating private and, in particular, commercial law among states and groups of states and to formulate uniform law instruments, principles and rules to achieve those objectives.

Ends/Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Issued at HKT 11:00

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