Dr Andy Chin Chi-on, Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Language Studies, and Director of the Centre for Research in Linguistics and Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, has been awarded a Publication Award in Language Learning at the Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Awards 2023.

Co-authored by Dr Chin and Professor Benjamin Tsou Ka-yin, Emeritus Professor at City University of Hong Kong, the award-winning publication Latin Terms in Hong Kong Legal Language features 105 of the most commonly used Latin words and phrases found in a corpus of Hong Kong’s legal judgments and laws which totals some 22 million words. Latin terms constitute a special feature of English legal language, as well as the language of law in many European countries. They encapsulate specific meanings shared across the legal profession internationally, as is the case with medical terms in Latin. Mastering and understanding these legal terms and their equivalents in Chinese and English are both challenging and rewarding, especially in Hong Kong, where the Biliteracy and Trilingualism language policy has been embodied in the legal system since China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997.

The bilingual examples illustrated in the book were meticulously collected from statutory and judicial sources to help readers better understand their meanings and their actual usage in the context of Hong Kong. The provision of usage frequency for each Chinese term also shows how these Latin terms and their interpretation have evolved over time.