In this article, Wilson Leung analyses the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal’s judgment in Re Guy Kwok-hung Lam (2023) 26 HKCFAR 119, where Robert French NPJ held that a bankruptcy petition would generally be dismissed or stayed if the underlying contract contained an exclusive jurisdiction clause in favour of another forum. This decision provides crucial guidance for the courts, given the prevalence of exclusive jurisdiction clauses in modern commercial practice, as well as the frequent use of bankruptcy and winding up petitions as a means of debt recovery. However, key questions remain to be answered, including whether arbitration clauses should be accorded with the same deference as exclusive jurisdiction clauses, and whether other jurisdictions will follow the same approach.

This article was first published in ThoughtLeaders4 FIRE Magazine.

To read Wilson’s article, please click here.