Basic Law, Basic Politics: The Constitutional Game of Hong Kong

Abstract

Most lawyers have a doctrinal understanding of the constitution. They are sceptical of any political understanding of a constitution, feeling that this may taint the sacredness of the legal paradigm. Political scientists view things differently. They offer three approaches to understanding a constitution from the perspective of the political paradigm: the attitudinal approach, the institutional approach and the strategic approach. The author argues that the incorporation of the political paradigm into one's analytical framework is unavoidable if one wants to have a comprehensive understanding of the constitution. The author integrates the legal and political paradigmsi nto the form of a constitutionalg ame, and applies this analyticalf ramework to the Basic Law, thereby illustrating how law and politics have interacted in the constitutional development of Hong Kong over the last 10 years.