Amanda Whitfort
Department of Professional Legal Education
BA (Hons) Monash, LLB Monash, LLM London, MSc International Animal Welfare Science, Law and Ethics (Edinburgh) Solicitor and Barrister
Supreme Court of Victoria and High Court of Australia
Barrister of the High Court of Hong Kong SAR
Director of Knowledge Exchange & Impact
Biography
Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort BA(Hons)(Monash), LLB(Monash), LLM(London), MSc (Edinburgh) was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Australia, and has extensive practical experience in criminal law and prosecutions. Before joining the HKU Law Faculty in 2001, she was the Course Director of the PCLL programme of HKU’s School of Professional and Continuing Education. She has participated in design of the new PCLL curriculum, and currently leads the Criminal Litigation course. On the PCLL programme she has taught Criminal and Civil Procedure, Professional Practice and Advocacy. In 2001, the University of London Convocation Trust awarded her the Bridgid Cotter prize for achieving the highest aggregate on the University’s External Masters in Laws. After becoming the first local resident of Hong Kong to pass the Overseas Bar Qualification Examination in 2005, she was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar.
In 2008 she was awarded a Public Policy Research Grant (PPRG) for a sum of HK$397,000 by the Research Grants Council (RGC) to provide a comparative review of the animal welfare laws of Hong Kong. In partnership with Dr Fiona Woodhouse, Deputy Director (Welfare) of the SPCA, she successfully completed this review in 2010. In 2009 she developed and began teaching Animal Law and Rights, the first internationally focused Animal Law course in Asia. In 2011, she was awarded the Law Faculty’s Knowledge Exchange award for her transfer of animal welfare related legal knowledge to the SPCA (Hong Kong), the Hong Kong Administration and the Hong Kong public. In the same year she was awarded a RGC funded Public Impact Knowledge Exchange grant to review Hong Kong’s local wild animal conservation legislation. In 2016, Ms Whitfort secured both a KE Impact Project Scheme grant: Wildlife Crime: Knowledge Transfer for Informed Sentencing and a further RGC grant to study Hong Kong’s legislative powers to regulate international trade in endangered wild animals.
Ms Whitfort’s research and knowledge exchange in animal related laws have resulted in significant legislative and policy change for Hong Kong. In 2017, she was awarded the University’s Knowledge Exchange Excellence Award (video) in recognition of her work’s outstanding societal impact.
Ms Whitfort has published and presented internationally on Criminal and Animal Law and is the leading authority on Animal Welfare Law in Hong Kong. She is a long standing contributor to Archbold Hong Kong (Sweet and Maxwell, Asia) and Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong: Vol 1: Animals (Butterworths) and author of Criminal Procedure in Hong Kong: A Guide for Students and Practitioners (LexisNexis, 2nd ed 2012). She is the chief examiner in Criminal Procedure for the Law Society of Hong Kong’s Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examinations and the PCLL Conversion Course. Ms Whitfort currently sits on the Hong Kong government’s Legal Advisory Group to the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Research Area
- Animal Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Trial Practice and Advocacy
- Environmental Law
- Green Crimes
more details
Selected Publications
Research Profile
Hong Kong Seeks to Update Animal Welfare Laws to International Standards
A Review of Hong Kong’s Wild Animal and Plant Protection Laws (2013)
Press coverage of Review of Animal Welfare Legislation in Hong Kong
Amanda Sarah Whitfort, Associate Professor, has been the Criminal Litigation Course Cordinator on the PCLL in the Department of Professional Legal Education since she joined the Faculty of Law in 2001. Her research specialization focuses on comparative criminal justice and administration in Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China. She also conducts research focusing on the environmental laws of Hong Kong.
Her refereed articles include The Chinese Criminal Defence System: “A Comparative Study of a System in Reform”, 2006; Muddying the Waters? The Water Pollution Control Ordinance and Defining Pollution of Rivers and Streams in Hong Kong (with Professor David Dudgeon; Head; Department of Ecology and Biodiversity; 2 005); Determining an Indeterminate Sentence (2004); and The Proposed Offence of Persistent Sexual Abuse of a Child (2002).
She has acted as examiner on Professional Conduct for the Law Society of Hong Kong since 2000. In 2001 the University of London awarded her a Master of Laws (Criminology and Criminal Justice) and the Brigid Cotter prize for achieving the highest aggregate on the University’s External Master of Laws.
Ms. Whitfort holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Philosophy from the University of Monash, Australia, along with a Bachelor in Laws from Monash University and a Master of Laws from the University of London. She has been admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor in Victoria, Australia, since 1995 and has extensive practical experience in criminal law and prosecutions in that jurisdiction. Before joining the HKU Law Faculty in 2001, she was the Course Director of the PCLL programme of HKU’s School of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2005 she was invited to act as the External Examiner on the SPACE Law Division’s courses. She has participated in the design of the new PCLL curriculum, and in teaching Criminal Procedure, Professional Practice and Criminal Advocacy and Trial Advocacy on the PCLL. In 2005 she was invited to teach Environmental Law on the Masters of Science program conducted by the Department of Ecology and Biodiversity, Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong.