Cheng Huan S.C. was educated in Malaysia, Singapore, and the U.K. (in London and at Cambridge University). He was called to the English Bar (Inner Temple) in 1969. In 1971 he was awarded a Diploma in International Law from Cambridge University. He holds an LL.B. degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he also completed a thesis on the legal aspects of boundary disputes between China and the Soviet Union.

Before commencing his career at the Bar Cheng Huan devoted a few years to journalism and was an Assistant Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Associate Editor of Asiaweek, and China correspondent for The Guardian newspaper of the U.K. He travelled extensively in China and wrote extensively on that country’s affairs.

In 1976 Cheng Huan was called to the Hong Kong Bar and sat as a Deputy District Court Judge during 1986-1987. In 1988 he was made a Queen’s Counsel.

In 1996 Cheng Huan became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Among his many public duties he was a member of the People’s Consultative Conference for the Province of Fujian of the PRC, a deputy convener of the Bar Disciplinary Committee, an ex-member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and is a director of the Chinese Overseas Friendship Association. He has served as a member of the election committee that elects the Chief Executive of the HKSAR. He is also an accredited Counsel to the United Nations’ International Criminal Court at The Hague, is Adjunct Professor at City University, Hong Kong, and Adjunct Professor at Shue Yan University also in Hong Kong.

For many years Cheng Huan has been a columnist for Sing Tao newspaper, and previously for East Week magazine. His 2008 book ‘Defending the Law’ (in English and Chinese versions) recounts some memorable cases during his legal career at the Bar. A second bi-lingual volume entitled ‘One Judgment a Week’ appeared in 2014. A third volume, ‘Reflections’, in both English and Chinese versions, was published in 2021.