recognise that in such matters the mature individual can be expected to bear responsibility for his own actions without the threat of punishment law (5)
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14. That view on the proper role of the criminal law is challenged by those who argue that the community opinion in Hong Kong is disapproving of homo- sexual conduct and that the law should give expression to society's moral views on sexual behaviour. On this view, the proper role of the criminal law does extend to cover private sexual relations between consenting adults. It should not therefore be changed in a way which would imply approval of homosexual activities. Similarly, from a religious perspective it has been argued that homosexual behaviour is sinful and a crime against God's law, the principles of which should be reflected in the criminal law.
15. It should be noted that the removal of criminal penalties for specific homosexual acts would not imply legal approval of those acts. Under existing law, there are certain activities which the law disapproves of but which are not in themselves crimes. Examples are prostitution and adultery. Although these acts do not amount to crimes they are not lawful in the full sense. The law attaches to them certain unfavourable consequences. For example, an agree- ment to employ the services of a prostitute is not enforceable in the courts, and persons who publish advertisements relating to prostitutes may be convicted of conspiring to corrupt public morals. In this way it is made clear that the law does not condone these acts.
16. If certain types of homosexual acts were no longer to be crimes they too would be treated in the law as being 'unlawful' and 'immoral'. This would show that the law disapproves of them and would mean that unfavourable legal consequences, like those mentioned above, would still attach to them. Moreover certain criminal offences would still apply in relation to homosexual acts in private between consenting adults: it would continue to be an offence for one man to procure (i.e. succeed in arranging) any homosexual act between two other men, and people who attempted in public to assist or encourage men to take part in homosexual acts would be guilty of conspiring to corrupt public morals. In England, where homosexual acts in private by adults are no longer criminal, people have been convicted of such a conspiracy on the basis that they published advertisements issued with the purpose of assisting or encouraging men to take part in homosexual acts. In the case which established this point it was said, (about the legislation which decriminalised adult homosexual acts)—
'I find nothing in the Act to indicate that Parliament thought or intended to lay down that indulgence in these practices is not corrupting. I read the Act as saying that, even though it may be corrupting, if people choose to corrupt
(5) Wolfenden Report, para 61.
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