The Political Economy of Hong Kong's Open Skies Legal Regime: An Empirical and Theoretical Exploration

Hong Kong has generally followed a libertarian path on the external economic front, maintaining a widely open trade and investment platform. Its policy regarding the now well-established "open skies" system qualifies as something of an aberration, albeit obviously not to the same extent as its far more inward-looking immigration strategies. This pattern can effectively be placed in the appropriate theoretical context and the territory’s experience in that respect may offer relevant analytical insights into the evolution of international legal regimes, particularly those with a distinct regulatory focus and essentially bilateral in nature.