Clifford Chance
Rights of Third Parties in Hong Kong: What you need to know
24 November 2015
The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Ordinance (Cap. 623) (the "Ordinance") reforms the long-standing common law doctrine of privity of contract by enabling persons who are not parties to a contract to enforce rights under that contract. This will bring Hong Kong's contract law regime more into line with other major common law jurisdictions, such as England, Singapore and New Zealand, which already have third party contractual rights legislation in place. The Ordinance comes into force on 1 January 2016 and will apply to all Hong Kong law-governed contracts entered into on or after that date (but it will not apply to contracts entered into before that date).
