Benny Tai
戴耀廷
1964–present
- Legal Scholar
- Civil Movement Organiser
Biography
Early Life and Academic Career
Benny Tai was born in Hong Kong in 1964 and received his LLB and PhD in law from the University of Hong Kong, specialising in constitutional law and civil liberties. He spent much of his career as a law professor at HKU's Faculty of Law, where he was recognised for his scholarship in constitutionalism and civil society, and was active in Hong Kong's legal community and religious civic organisations.
Umbrella Movement and Civil Disobedience
In 2013, Tai published an article proposing civil disobedience as a response to Beijing's potential refusal to grant genuine universal suffrage, attracting widespread attention. In 2014, he co-founded the "Occupy Central with Love and Peace" campaign alongside Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, which formed an important organisational foundation for the Umbrella Movement of that year. The three were subsequently prosecuted for public nuisance-related offences and convicted in 2019.
"35+" Primary and NSL Prosecution
In 2020, Tai organised an unofficial primary election among pro-democracy Legislative Council candidates — the "35+" scheme — aiming to coordinate candidates to win a majority of seats. Authorities maintained that the scheme's goal of voting down the government budget constituted subversion of state power. In 2021, Tai and 46 other democrats were charged under the National Security Law in what became the largest NSL prosecution to date. In 2024, Tai was convicted of conspiracy to commit subversion and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
Historical Significance
Tai's case marked the extension of NSL enforcement from the media sector to the political opposition, and the "47 democrats" trial became a central reference point for international observers monitoring changes in Hong Kong's legal system. His prosecution attracted extensive concern among the international legal community about judicial independence in Hong Kong, and has become a key document in the study of the common law tradition's fate under the National Security Law.