CEPA- the Regional Free Trade Agreement That Further Integrated and Strengthened the Legal Services Markets between the Mainland and Hong Kong

Abstract Since the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) has been implementedbetween the Central People‟s Government of the People‟s Republic of China and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2004, the legal services markets between the Mainland and Hong Kong have been further integrated.To a large extent, the essay argues that CEPA acts as an important role in the liberalization of the legal services, which also strengthen the quality of the legal services between the Mainland and Hong Kong. This essay seeks to critically analyze the significance of the CEPA as a free trade agreement that liberalizes the legal services markets between the Mainland and Hong Kong. This essay examines the current framework of the legal services access mechanism and provides those opportunities and challenges that brought by the legal service access mechanism that formulated by the CEPA and the WTO commitments, particularly with regard to the CEPA. Also, this essay provides some suggestions for potential reform that could further liberalize the legal services market between the Mainland and Hong Kong and strengthen the quality of the legal services between them. Last but not least, two charts will be provided in the Appendix, which illustrates the current legal services markets between the Mainland and Hong Kong and shows the trend of the number of representative offices of Hong Kong law firms in the Mainland respectively.