Hong Kong, 12 November 2026: Former Director of Public Prosecutions Grenville Cross will call upon more than five decades of experience at the highest levels of the legal profession to deliver the eighth annual HKU-Boase Cohen & Collins Criminal Law Lecture. His talk – entitled “Human Rights: A Prosecutor’s Journey” – will be given at the University of Hong Kong on Friday 4 December, starting at 7:00pm.
In preparing his lecture, Grenville notes that he has witnessed the development of human rights within the criminal justice system at first hand, and considers they are now better protected than when he started prosecuting in Hong Kong in 1978. “The culture of the legal world is now more human rights friendly, with key rights being constitutionally underpinned,” he observes.
“Although the challenges faced by prosecutors are greater, I believe their basic ethics have not changed over time. Prosecutors are committed to fairness for suspects, the protection of victims and the pursuit of just outcomes. I find it reassuring that human rights protections are incorporated into the national security legislation, and have been endorsed by the State Council.”
The lecture, to be held in the Philip KH Wong Theatre at HKU’s Pokfulam campus, is free of charge and open to all. Anyone wishing to attend should register here. Two evenings before the lecture, Grenville will conduct a “fireside chat” with BC&C Senior Partner Colin Cohen before a small audience during a private dinner at the China Club.
I Grenville Cross GBS, SC served as Hong Kong’s Director of Public Prosecutions from 1997 to 2009, having been the territory’s Deputy Crown Prosecutor from 1990 to 1997. A graduate of the University of Southampton, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1974, and to the Bar of Hong Kong in 1981.
He maintains various legal and academic roles, both at home and abroad. These include being an active member of the International Association of Prosecutors, where he chairs the Standing Committee on Prosecutors in Difficulty. He remains firmly in the public eye as a high-profile criminal justice advocate and media analyst.
“We are thrilled that Grenville has kindly accepted our invitation to deliver this year’s Criminal Law Lecture,” says BC&C Managing Partner Alex Liu. “Given his immense standing in the legal world, vast experience of Hong Kong and international law, and outstanding record of public service, he brings significant gravitas and authority to our event. We are confident his talk will be of huge interest to law students, the wider legal profession and the general public.”
The first four editions of the Criminal Law Lecture were delivered by KCs Clare Montgomery, Edward Fitzgerald CBE, Geoffrey Robertson and the former Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales, Lord Ken Macdonald. More recent speakers have been Hong Kong’s former Chief Justice, the Honourable Geoffrey Ma, former Justice of Appeal Ian McWalters, and Ian Winter KC.
