Raymond Wacks
Raymond Wacks is Emeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory at the University of Hong Kong, where he was Head of the Department of Law from 1986 to 1993. He was previously Professor of Public Law and Head of the Department of Public Law at the University of Natal in Durban. He retired at the end of 2001, and now lives in Britain. Education. Educated at the University of the Witwatersrand, (B.A., LLB.); the London School of Economics (LL.M.); University College, Oxford (M.Litt.); and the University of London (PhD), his major areas of expertise are legal philosophy, and  human rights, in particular the protection of privacy on which he is a leading international authority. In 1997 a higher doctorate in law (LL.D.) was conferred on him by the University of London for his publications on privacy and legal philosophy. His books have been translated into numerous languages including Arabic, Greek, Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Slovene, and Georgian. Privacy. Professor Wacks' major works on privacy include: "The Protection of Privacy" published in 1980 by Sweet & Maxwell; "Personal Information: Privacy and the Law", published in 1989 by Oxford University Press; "Privacy", a two-volume collection of  essays published in 1993 by Dartmouth, London and New York University Press; "Privacy and Press Freedom" published by Blackstone Press, London in 1995. In 2013 "Privacy and Media Freedom" was published, and in 2015 the second edition of "Privacy: A Very Short Introduction" appeared (both published by Oxford University Press). An Italian translation was published in 2016 by Monti & Ambrosini. In 2019 "Protecting Personal Information: The Right to Privacy Reconsidered" was published by Hart Publishing, co-authored by Andrea Monti. Wacks is a former chairman of the committee of the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong that examined this subject , and was a member of the statutory Personal Data (Privacy) Advisory Committee. Legal philosophy. The sixth edition of his "Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory" was published by Oxford University Press in 2021. A Turkish translation was published in 2015 by Astana Yayinlari. In 2006, Oxford University Press published his "Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction", the second edition of which appeared in 2014. In 2008, his second book in this series, "Law: A Very Short Introduction" was published; the second edition appeared in 2015. Hong Kong. In addition to publishing articles and books on these subjects, he  has edited a number of collections of essays on various aspects of Hong Kong law, including "Civil Liberties in Hong Kong", "The Future of the Law in Hong Kong", "The Law in Hong Kong 1969–1989", and "Human Rights in Hong Kong" (all published by Oxford University Press), "Hong Kong, China, and 1997: Essays in Legal Theory", and "The New Legal Order in Hong Kong" published by Hong Kong University Press. A collection of his writings, "Law, Morality, and the Private Domain" was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2000. Wacks has also written numerous articles on aspects of Hong  Kong's legal system, including questions raised by the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, especially the judicial function and the problems of legal continuity after 1997. He was for several years editor of the "Hong Kong Law Journal", and presented the RTHK television and radio programme, "The Week in Politics". Fiction. His novel, "White Lies", set in the 1960s in South Africa, was published in November 2010.