Hong Kong is a common law jurisdiction, and its legal system is based on English law. Following Hong Kong’s handover to China on 1 July 1997, the Basic Law of Hong Kong is the constitutional document of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Article 8 of the Basic Law provides that: “laws previously in force in Hong Kong, that is, the common law, rules of equity, ordinances, subordinate legislation and customary law shall be maintained, except for any that contravene [the Basic Law], and subject to any amendment by the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”

Hong Kong is the only common law jurisdiction within the People’s Republic of China and one of the few financial centres in the world without a formal rescue mechanism in its legislation. Hong Kong has not enacted legislation to recognise corporate rescue over simple liquidation.

In Stream TV Networks, Inc. v. SeeCubic, Inc., the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Court of Chancery’s finding that the board of Stream TV Networks, Inc. (Stream) could sell all of Stream’s assets without a stockholder vote due to Stream’s insolvency. The Delaware Supreme Court found that the sale agreement – in essence, a privately structured foreclosure transaction – constituted an “asset transfer” under Stream’s charter, triggering a class vote provision that required the approval of Stream’s Class B stockholders.

In In re Rehabilitation of Scottish Re (U.S.), Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0175-JTL (Del. Ch. Apr.18, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled, as a matter of first impression, that in a delinquency proceeding for an insurance company under Delaware law, there is no per se requirement that a rehabilitation plan meet a “liquidation standard” to obtain court approval. Under the “liquidation standard,” a rehabilitation plan must provide claimants at least “liquidation value,” or the value they would have received in a liquidation proceeding.