In his three-day inspection tour of Macao in December, President Xi Jinping placed much emphasis on the need for the special administrative region to create a platform for higher-level opening-up and promoting the city’s international connections. Correspondingly, in a recent seminar held by the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, also focused on opening-up. And he said for the first time that Macao’s Continental European legal system will remain unchanged for a long time. By leveraging the fullness of its strength to connect with Continental European law, Macao’s legal system can help the city broaden its vistas for global connectivity.

We start with a brief introduction to the legal system of Macao. As a former Portuguese colony, Macao’s legal system falls under the civil law tradition, which comes from those of European countries such as Portugal and Germany. And Portuguese laws have exerted important influence on the laws of Macao. There is a big difference between Macao’s legal system and that of the common law system. Legislation is the main source of the law. In Hong Kong, case law is a major source of law because of its common law system.

According to Tong Io Cheng, Macao’s legal framework shares a special historical and practical relationship with Portuguese law, characterized by the use of Portuguese as the official language and reliance on Portuguese legal literature (Tong Io Cheng, The Road Towards a Sustainable Legal Order — Reflections On The Eve Of The 25th Anniversary Of The Macau SAR, in Macau Journal of Global Legal Studies (2024)). The apex of Macao’s legal system is the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region, which is modeled on the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR.

On the eve of Macao’s return to the motherland, all important laws had been translated into Chinese. The five major codes —  the Penal Code, the Penal Procedural Code, the Civil Code, the Commercial Code and the Civil Procedural Code — have been updated, allowing these laws to be affirmed and transformed in accordance with Article 8 of the Macao Basic Law during the establishment of the Macao SAR, thus becoming part of the SAR’s laws. Had the timely modifications and translations of these major codes not been implemented, the smooth legal transition might not have happened (Tong).

In his speech delivered on Macao’s 25th anniversary, President Xi called on the city to play a bigger role on the international stage, to embrace diversity and inclusiveness, and avoid complacency. In particular, Xi emphasized the city’s role as a bridge between the Chinese mainland and the Portuguese-speaking world. According to Eduardo Ambrosio, president of the Executive Committee of the International Lusophone Markets Business Association, many industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are eager to export their products to African countries (Nelson Moura, Reopening Doors, in Macau Business, January 2025).

Mastering Portuguese legal traditions and judicial vocabulary is a valuable skill for anyone interested in the legal systems of Portuguese-speaking countries. A deep understanding of the Portuguese legal system has presented the business communities in Macao with a golden opportunity to expand their footprints in these Portuguese-speaking countries. Since many continental countries in Europe have civil law systems, a similar law system in Macao has given its business communities a better insight into the legal environment of these European countries.

A good command of Portuguese enables Macao’s businesspeople to overcome language barriers in Portuguese-speaking countries. Currently, Portuguese ranks fifth among world languages in the number of native speakers. It is also widely spoken or studied as a second language in many other countries. It is noteworthy that Macao is becoming the Chinese center for learning Portuguese. Today, the use of Portuguese is growing as it has become a language for opportunity because of increased Chinese diplomatic and financial ties with Portuguese-speaking countries. Macao’s pedagogical role deserves our support.

Furthermore, Macao should create a new space for discourse on the promotion of closer economic ties between the Chinese mainland and Europe. According to Zhang Fan, an assistant professor at the Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao is a good place to connect the Chinese mainland and Europe (Tony Lai, Bottom Up, in Macau Business, January 2025). With its strategic location alongside Hengqin, Macao offers significant investment opportunities for European small and medium-sized enterprises.

Macao should also enhance its allure in the eyes of tech startups. At the moment, 10 percent of global innovations, as evidenced by international patent organizations, originate from the Greater Bay Area, with China contributing 40 percent to global innovation (ibid). Macao can act as a bridge between tech companies in the Greater Bay Area and overseas investors. In recent years, China has spearheaded more original innovation and groundbreaking research.

According to Pedro Steenhagen, development director of the Brazilian think tank View China, the promotion of “one center” (world tourism and leisure center), “one platform” (commercial cooperation platform with Portuguese-speaking countries) and “one base” (connective base to promote exchanges between the East and West) policy can give full play to Macao’s unique advantages. He believes Macao’s use of Chinese and Portuguese as its official languages has promoted relations between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

As a matter of fact, the maintenance of Macao’s legal system will help meet the expectations set out by President Xi, including the promotion of an opening-up policy in line with national strategies and making continuous efforts to sharpen the competitive edge of the city, as well as improving governance efficiency with various measures, including legal reforms. Xi and Xia’s speeches have provided great inspiration for the optimization of Macao’s continental legal system under “one country, two systems”.

Macao should engage in deeper reflection of what needs to be done to maintain and improve its continental legal system and what role is to be played in Chinese modernization. It has to concern itself as much with the judicial need to administer justice in the city as with the strategic need to ingeniously leverage its legal system to help the city play a bigger role on the international stage. It should follow the advice of Xi and Xia and explore legal reform and all possible means to enhance the extra-instrumental value of its legal system with Macao characteristics under “one country, two systems” in an interconnected world.

Lei Wun-kong, is president of the Association of the Legal Promotion of Macau and a senior consultant of Chinese Dream Think Tank.

Kacee Ting Wong is a barrister, a part-time researcher of Shenzhen University Hong Kong and the Macao Basic Law Research Center, chairman of Chinese

Dream Think Tank, and a district councilor.                             

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.