UCL Laws pays tribute to Sir Ti-liang Yang

Sir Ti-liang Yang was a distinguished figure in Hong Kong’s legal community and made significant impact on the Hong Kong legal system and in his contributions to legal and academic fields. 

Sir Ti-liang Yang served as the Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1988 to 1996, and was the first ethnic Chinese person to hold this office. He received a knighthood in the Queen’s New Year Honours List in 1988; and was appointed a Member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong in 1997. He was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, Hong Kong’s highest honour, in 1999. 

Sir Ti-liang Yang studied the LLB Law at UCL and graduated in 1953. A prominent member of the UCL Laws alumni community, he was appointed Honorary Fellow of UCL in 1989 and President of the Bentham Association in 1991. 

Professor Sir Robin Jacob writes: 

“I first met TL at my father’s house in around 1965. How they met I do not know – either through the UCL connection (my father was a UCL graduate too) or via my father’s pupil Albert Sanguinetti who was in practice at the Bar in Hong Kong but who had been a magistrate with TL somewhere, I think, in Kowloon or the New Territories. TL and my father got on like a house on fire – partly, perhaps because they were both Shanghai boys – born in Shanghai. When I first started to go to Hong Kong as counsel in the 1980s I would meet TL. What fun – to hear not only about the serious stuff but also, perhaps especially, the gossip! 

What he did for Hong Kong is inestimable. He was the last full Chief Justice of Hong Kong and played a crucial role in the handover, helping create an effective legal relationship with the Basic Law of Hong Kong and the PRC constitution and building in judicial independence. 

His son, Trevor, wrote this to me: “In the final few years when one’s need of formal wear diminishes, he held on to his UCL, University of London and Gray’s Inn ties only.”  UCL Laws has lost one of its great sons. We have his picture (see below) in the Hong Kong Seminar Room.” 

UCL Laws would like to extend our condolences to Sir Ti-liang Yang’s family during this difficult time.