Hong Kong's legal system is firmly based on the rule of law and independence of the judiciary. Any dispute between the government and an individual, or between private citizens or corporate bodies, the principle of the independence of the judiciary applies equally to all person. In Hong Kong, there are commonly five ways of resolving disputes. They are negotiation, conciliation and mediation, litigation and arbitration.

Conciliation is negotiations conducted by parties involved with the intention of obtaining a binding compromise agreement. This is a friendly resolution among other methods. It is not costly and effective.

Any one in the dispute can initiate the conciliation. Enforcement of the compromise agreement is on the contract law. However, if the conciliation proceedings fail to produce a settlement within 3 months, then the dispute will go to arbitration.

Arbitration is a popular method of dispute resolution in Hong Kong. Parties involved in the dispute agree to appoint a third party (i.e. arbitrator) to resolve the dispute. The arbitrator generally has specialist knowledge in the relevant industry being appointed. Although the arbitration award cannot bind both parties, it is cheaper than the courts.

The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre parties to choose the best available option to resolve disputes and provides a full set of support services for arbitration and mediation of disputes.

Most formal means on dispute resolution. Resolution of dispute between dispute between parties by court judgement and this is binding on both parties. Hong Kong has a well-developed system of courts which have jurisdiction in civil matters as follows:

Court Jurisdiction	Amount of civil claim
The High Court	Unlimited
The District Court	Up to HK$120,000 (US$15,385)
The Small Claims Tribunal	Up to HK$15,000 (HK$1,923)