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JUSTICE (HONG KONG BRANCH)
Tom Sargant, Esq., O.B.E.,J.P.,
Secretary,
JUSTICE,
12 Crane Court,
Fleet Street,
LONDON, E.C. 4.
30th May, 1973
Dear Mr Sargant,
The Hong Kong Government has recently launched a Fight Violent Crime Campaign. Apart from various administrative acts which it has taken to implement the campaign, the Government has also introduced four Bills which are now before the Legislative Council.
The four Bills published on Friday, 11th May,
are:
| (i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
The District Court (Amendment) Bill which seeks to increase the summary jurisdiction of the District Judges to seven years' imprisonment;
The Magistrates (Amendment) Bill which seeks to increase the summary jurisdiction of the principal magistrate to four years' imprisonment (and, where the defendant stands convicted of more than one offence, five years' imprisonment);
The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill which seeks to introduce preventive detention;
The Public Order (Amendment) Bill which widens the powers of the Courts to deal with persons convicted of the unlawful possession of offensive weapons.
You will have received copies of the four Bills which accompanied Jackson-Lipkin's letter of the 23rd May. These Bills were not sent to the Bar Association for its comments before they were published, presumably because it was feared that the Bar Association would examine them in depth and critically. Instead, the Bar Association was invited to give its support to the Fight Violent Crime Campaign, and these proposed changes, before the details thereof were known.