1:00 pm - 2:00 pm (HKT)<\/p>","photos":[{"photo":235761,"caption":""}],"venue":"
Faculty Board Room, 6\/F, Lee Shau Kee Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong\/ Online (Zoom)<\/p>","speaker_name":"","speaker":"
David C. Donald<\/strong> is Emeritus Professor in the Law Faculty of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and an attorney at law in Honolulu, Hawai\u02bbi. https:\/\/cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk\/webform\/view.php?id=13731911<\/p>","enquiry":" cctl.law@cuhk.edu.hk<\/p>","details":"","intro":" \u201cDemocracy versus Authoritarianism\u201d has been the most recent characterization of the West\u2019s struggle against the rest, whether the overall struggle is dated back 500 years to include traditional colonialism or merely 100 years to begin with the capitalist fight against communism. This characterization has become problematic because not all Western countries can now objectively be classified as working democracies. The US is governed far more as an oligarchy, despite having legally guaranteed democratic rights. The wellbeing of ordinary Americans has decreased year-on-year for decades and it has been demonstrated that preferences of the majority of US citizens cede to policies reflecting elite interests. On the other hand, nations with alternative governance forms that effectively control powerful oligarchs, notably China and Russia, have markedly increased the economic and social wellbeing of their citizens. Yet each limitation placed on oligarch power triggers strong condemnation and even aggression from the West. \u00a0In a period when China has peacefully lifted about 800 million of its own people out of poverty, the United States has taken economic wellbeing and political power from the majority of citizens and passed it to a wealthy elite, launched dozens of overt and covert regime-change operations to topple governments limiting oligarch power, and now openly prepares for a war against China without any rational justification. The conceit of \u201cfree world democracy versus authoritarianism\u201d has come to lack all explanatory value. A better criterion marking when the West turns against the rest appears to be when a country limits the power of internationally connected oligarchs. If that is indeed the case, this behavior would be difficult to distinguish from colonialism. This essay explores the validity of such a reconceptualization.<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHis publications have focused on corporate law and securities market structure, with an emphasis on comparative law and political economy questions in regulatory models and market design. His teaching at CUHK was mainly in company and securities law, as well as the history of common law.
\r\nDavid also taught law at Goethe University, National Taiwan University and China University of Political Science and Law. He has practiced commercial law in Washington DC, Italy and Germany. In Honolulu, David assists small businesses, the Mediation Center of the Pacific, the Hawai\u02bbi Public Housing Authority and the Hawai\u02bbi State Certified Arbitration Program within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.<\/p>","admission":"