A common law position for a choice of law in internet defamation - the case for Hong Kong

With ever increasing access and use of internet worldwide, torts committed via internet are seen more often while legal positions in common law fail to keep pace with such developments. This can be seen especially in Hong Kong where conflict of law rules are still based on traditional common law authorities. In the event of internet defamation, the courts in Hong Kong necessarily apply the ‘double actionability’ rules such that there would only be a cause of action if such an alleged tort is actionable under both the law of the form (lex fori) and the law of the place where such wrong was committed (lex loci delicti). But, for internet defamation, how can the lex loci delicti be determined? This paper seeks to analyse this problem and proposes a suitable approach in determining the lex loci delicti in the event of internet defamation