Professor Simon Young is the Ian Davies Professor in Ethics and Deputy Director for Education and Development of Research Integrity in The University of Hong Kong.  He serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law (Brill) and General Editor of Archbold Hong Kong (Sweet & Maxwell). 

Professor Young’s empirical and comparative law research has explored important aspects of Hong Kong’s constitutional order including the National Security Law, the Court of Final Appeal, the system of electing the Chief Executive, and functional constituencies of the Legislative Council.  He also writes on the human rights aspects of the criminal process and the use of civil processes to achieve criminal law aims, particularly in the areas of money laundering and the proceeds of crime.  

Professor Young is a practising barrister with Parkside Chambers.  He handles mainly criminal and public law cases.  He has been involved in training police and prosecutors in Hong Kong and has led the Prosecutions Division’s Continuing Legal Education Programme (2011-14, 2016-17) and taught in the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Chief Investigators’ Command Course (2017-2019) and the Detective Training Centre of the Hong Kong Police College (2017). 

His public service includes membership on the Review Body on Bid Challenges under the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (2012-17), the Post-Release Supervision Board (2008-14), and Disciplinary Panel A of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (2011-20). He was also a member of the Hong Kong Law Reform Commission subcommittees on double jeopardy (2006-11) and hearsay in criminal proceedings (2001-9) and the Independent Police Complaints Council’s Observers Scheme (2010-12).

Prior to joining the Faculty, Professor Young worked in Toronto as appellate counsel in the Crown Law Office-Criminal, Ministry of the Attorney General for Ontario, and before that as Assistant Crown Attorney in Hamilton, Ontario.