Steven Gallagher is a Professional Consultant, Professor of Practice in Law (by courtesy), and Associate Dean (Academic & Student Affairs). Steven has taught various aspects of property law in England and Hong Kong. In 2013, Steven introduced the Principles of Art, Antiquities, Cultural Heritage and the Law course to the LLM programme at CUHK LAW. Steven presents a range of continuing professional development courses for solicitors in Hong Kong on topics in property law, art law, and law and technology. Steven’s research interests include issues in property law, legal history, the development of policy and law intended to promote and protect art, antiquities and cultural heritage, law and technology, and innovative ways to teach law. The latter includes using superhero films for problem based learning, flipped classrooms and digital learning initiatives promoting asynchronous and distance learning. Steven has been widely quoted in newspapers and television reports regarding legal issues involving art and cultural heritage.

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education
• Barrister (Gray’s Inn)
• LL.M. International Corporate and Financial Law
• LL.B. (First Class) (University of Wolverhampton)

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

• August 2019 – Arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Art, The Hague.
• Pro-bono advice for a number of Hong Kong museums and artists on art and heritage related issues
• Member, Editorial Committee of the Hong Kong Law Society’s journal, The Hong Kong Lawyer 2010- 2020
  
• Consultant for the Department of Justice on the revisions to Hong Kong’s law of trusts implemented 1 December 2013

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Issues in Property Law
• Art, Antiquities, Cultural Heritage and the Law
• Legal History, particularly the origins of the law of trusts at common law and the incorporation of Chinese custom as law in Hong Kong
• Superheroes and the Law

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Books

• Equity and Trusts in Hong Kong: Doctrines, Remedies and Institutions, Second edition (Hong Kong: Sweet & Maxwell September 2020).
• The Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong: Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance (Cap 7) (Hong Kong: LexisNexis, May 2020).
• Equity and Trusts: Centuries in the Making. In Chinese (China: Law Press, 2018)

Practitioner Texts

• 2020 Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong
  
  • ❖ 400 Trusts
  • ❖ 410 Voluntary Associations
• 2019 Atkin’s Court Forms Hong Kong
  • ❖ Issue 63 Land Easements
  • ❖ Issue 65 Land Mortgages
  • ❖ Issue 66 Land Sales

Book Chapters

• “Prošek or Prosecco: Intellectual Property or Intangible Cultural Heritage?” In Wine Law and Policy From National Terroirs to a Global Market, edited by Julien Chaisse, Fernando Dias Simões and Danny Friedmann, chapter 22. (Boston, USA: Brill Publishers, 2020).
• “Trusts and charitable donations to museums: should museums sell their collections?” In Trust patrimoni artistici e collezioni-Trusts artistic estates and collections, edited by Marta Cenini (Italia, Agosto: CEDAM, Wolters Kluwer, September 2019)
• With Mark Hsiao. “The Concept of the Trust in Common Law and Civil Law and its Impact on Structured Finance”. In Structured Finance and Securitisation in Asia, edited by Kingsley Ong and Chee Keong LOW (Hong Kong: Thomson Reuters, November 2018).

Policy Briefs

• For “Top Global New Think Tank”, Antiquities Coalition: “How to Successfully Fight the Illicit Trade in Stolen Art and Antiquities in Asia? Remove an Antiquated English Law from Hong Kong’s Legal System” (December 2018)

Journal Articles

• With Lin Siyi, and Lutz-Christian Wolff. “The History of a Mystery: The Evolution of the Law of Unjust Enrichment in Germany, England and China.” (2020) 3(2) Cardozo International Comparative, Policy & Ethics Law Review, 337-381.
• “Shipwrecks, Treasure Hunters, Chinese Porcelain: the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage” (2019) September/ October, Orientations
• “‘Purchased in Hong Kong’: Is Hong Kong the Best Place to Buy Stolen or Looted Antiquities?’ (2017) 24(4) International Journal of Cultural Property, pp. 479-496.
• “Market Overt in Hong Kong: A ‘Legal Absurdity’”. (2016) 47(8) Orientations.
• ‘Confusing Criminal and Civil law: when may a hospital refuse to release a dead body?’ (2014) 22 The Journal of Law & Medicine 387- 397.
• ‘Placing your trust: a comparison of special trusts jurisdictions’ (2014) China Business Law Journal 5(8) (September), 51-57.
• ‘Trust in HK: Changes to trust law have mainland appeal’, China Business Law Journal (2013) 4 (9), 51-55.
• ‘The Presumption of Advancement in Hong Kong’, The Hong Kong Lawyer, November 2011, 14-25.
• ‘Museums and Human Remains: an Equitable Solution’ (2010) 17 International Journal of Cultural Property 65-86.
• ‘Raising the Dead: Exhumation and the Faculty Jurisdiction: should we presume to exhume? [2010] 1 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues
• ‘Protecting the Dead: Exhumation and the Ministry of Justice’- [2008] 5 Web Journal of Current Legal Issues
• With Frederick Cosgrove-Gibson, ‘The Justice of Exhumation’, New Law Journal, January 2008.

Books Edited

• Shared Heritage: Management of British Warship Wrecks Overseas (Swindon: English Heritage publication, January 2010):

INVITED PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS

• “Mitigating fiduciary obligations – how far can (and should) a trustee go?” The Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP) regional conference. 17 November 2020
• ‘Equity and the Enforcement of Informal Land Contracts: Part II’ with Prof. Alice Lee & Prof. Michael Lower. CUHK LAW Property Law Seminar Series. 11 November 2020
• “The great porcelain wreck treasures and China’s development of law and policy to identify and protect underwater cultural heritage along the Maritime Silk Road: evidence of “China’s peaceful rise” or reaction to perceived renewed colonial humiliation?” International Conference Heritage Conservation along the Belt and Road Zones: Between Politics and Professionalism, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, 23 October 2020
• ‘Equity and the Enforcement of Informal Land Contracts’ with Prof. Alice Lee & Prof. Michael Lower. CUHK LAW Property Law Seminar Series. 7 October 2020
• ‘Toms v Ruberry: when can a CPO s. 58 notice be served?’ & ‘Gift, Sale, or Presumption of Resulting Trust?’ with Prof. Michael Lower. CUHK LAW Property Law Seminar Series. 23 September 2020
• “Prošek or Prosecco: Intellectual Property or Intangible Cultural Heritage?” The 12th IP Conference-Technology and Legal Frontiers in Global Pandemics. 31 July 2020.
• ‘Law and History for Continuing Legal Education?’ CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2019/20 28 – 30 July 2020.
• “Toppled Statues and Monuments: Perspectives on the Global Movement Confronting Heritage”. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London. Online seminar. co-organised webinar with BIICL. 16 July 2020.
• “Unjust Enrichment and Equity”. Presented at “Unjust Enrichment in Asia”, CUHK LAW, 26 June 2020.
• “Law and History for Continuing Legal Education? Amazing Evidence from Hong Kong”. “Directions in Legal Education”, 3rd international conference on legal education in Hong Kong, CUHK LAW. 18-20 June 2020
• “Sham and Illusory Trusts: do we need the common law doctrine of sham in the law of trusts?” CUHK LAW Property Law Seminar Series. 22 April 2020
• “Chinese Shipwrecks and the Law of Treasure Hunting”, Class Acts for the Chinese University of Hong Kong,1 April 2020.
• “Collectors and Collections of Chinese Art and Antiquities: Problems with Gifts, Trusts and Legacies”- CUHK LAW Greater China Legal History Seminar Series. 3 April 2020
• “Middle Eastern Antiquities for Sale in Asia: a new market and a new trafficking route?” Law, Culture and Human Rights in Asia and the Middle East Conference. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London. 14 February 2020
• “Law and History for Continuing Legal Education? Amazing Evidence from Hong Kong”. ANZLH Annual Conference, Melbourne. 13 December 2019
• “Issues in Art & Law: A Collector’s Legacy from Donation to Deaccession?” Asia Week at Bonham’s Auctioneers Hong Kong. 3 December 2019
• “Chinese Shipwrecks, Treasure Hunters and the History of Underwater Cultural Heritage Regimes”. The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong. 24 May 2019
• “Sham and Illusory Trusts and Professional Trustees”. 28 November 2019, to the Hong Kong Trustees Association at Deacons Hong Kong.
• “Chinese Shipwrecks, Treasure Hunters and the History of Underwater Cultural Heritage Regimes”. CUHK LAW Greater China Legal History Seminar Series. 22 February 2019
• “Shipwrecks, Treasure and the Law”. Invited CPD seminar to shipping firm Lau, Horton & Wise LLP in Association with CMS Hong Kong. 2 November 2018
• “Is international Law Protecting Asia’s Cultural Heritage?” 3rd SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archeology, Bangkok, Thailand. 21 June 2018
• “The History of a Mystery: The Development of the Law of Unjust Enrichment in Hong Kong, China and Germany”. With Professor Lutz-Christian Wolff, and Ms. Siyi Lin. CUHK LAW Greater China Legal History Seminar Series. 2 February 2018
• “Civil evidence and presumptions: when is a gift a trust?”, CUHK LAW Property Law Seminar Series 10 & 17 January 2018.
• “The Embarrassing Dead: trying to forget the dead in Hong Kong”, Centre for Death and Society Conference 2017, ‘Death at the Margins of the State’. 9-10 June, 2017
• “The Lost Dead of China: why does Hong Kong retain the unowned and unclaimed dead from the Chinese diaspora of the 19^th and 20^th centuries?” Society for American Archaeology conference, Vancouver, Canada (29 March-2 April 2017)
• “The illegality defence: the new approach in Patel v Mirza”. With Professor Michael Lower. Faculty of Law, CUHK, 16 March 2017.
• “‘China’s spoiled children!’ How special laws and privileges were incorporated into the law of Hong Kong for the indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories and why this may have made them among the most (openly) resented indigenous peoples in the world’. 35th Annual Australia and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference. 05 December 2016
• “Death and Taxes- some things never change: considering the use of uses in medieval England and the use of trusts in modern Hong Kong”. Invited presentation to the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) Hong Kong Annual Meeting. 30 November, 2016
• “Precious Objects: the case for a legal ivory trade in Hong Kong”, Art, Antiquities, Heritage and Wildlife Crime in SE Asia Conference, the Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 22 October 2016
• “The Business of Death in Hong Kong: regulating unauthorised land use while recognising Chinese custom and Chinese customary law in Hong Kong’s law of the dead.” Death and Culture Conference University of York, England. 1-3 September 2016.
• “Is Hong Kong still the best place to buy illicitly obtained art and antiquities from Southeast Asia?” The 2^nd SEAMEO SPAFA International Conference on Southeast Asian Archeology, Bangkok, Thailand. 30 May-2 June 2016
• “Chinese Customary Law as Cultural Heritage?” Seminar as part of the Chinese Customary Law seminar series, The Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 23 March 2016
• “Losing our heritage: can the law in Hong Kong protect cultural heritage?” invited presentation at the National University of Singapore, Cultural Heritage Law and the Built Heritage, 17 and 18 March, 2016.
• “The Curious Case of Chinese Customary Trusts in Hong Kong: Uncertain Past, but Bright Future?” 20 November 2015. Second seminar series “Chinese Customary Law in Hong Kong” at the Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• “Cultural Heritage Law and Chinese Cultural Heritage” for the Digital Cultural Heritage, China Conference at the China Centre, University of Oxford with Peking University, 30 September – 2 October 2015.
• “One Culture, Two Systems: Changing Attitudes to Cultural Heritage Protection and Illicit Smuggling in Hong Kong and China” (With Toby Bull, Senior Inspector, Hong Kong Police). Art Crime Conference, Amelia, Umbria, Italy, 27 June 2015.
• “The horns of a dilemma: The Court’s choice between the spouse and creditors when considering resulting trusts.” The Hong Kong Family Law Association, 12 May 2015.

CONFERENCES ORGANISED

• Directions in Legal Education. 3^rd international conference on legal education in Hong Kong. CUHK LAW. 18-20 June 2020
• Art, Antiquities, Heritage and Wildlife Crime in SE Asia. 22 October 2016
• Directions in Legal Education. CUHK LAW. 3- 4 June 2016
• Magna Carta and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong. Organised for the three Hong Kong law schools to commemorate the 800^th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. 31 October 2015

AWARDS

• The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Vice-Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award 2012

OCCASIONAL REVIEWER

• International Journal of Cultural Property
• Art, Antiquity and the Law
• China-EU Law Journal
• Hong Kong Law Journal
• The Singapore Law Review