THE LEGAL SYSTEM
matrimonial, landlord and tenant, criminal, financial, employment, environmental and administrative law. They are updated regularly and new tapes are added when new subjects are identified as being of interest to the public. During the year, 73 topics were available on tape, and 51 058 calls were received.
Legal Aid Services Council
The Legal Aid Services Council is an independent statutory body established to advise the Chief Executive of the HKSAR on legal aid policies. It also supervises the provision of legal aid services by the Legal Aid Department without interfering with its day-to-day operation. The council is chaired by a non-official who is not in the legal profession. Its members include lawyers, lay members and the Director of Legal Aid. During the year, it continued to conduct reviews on legal aid issues and on the services provided by the Legal Aid Department.
As from April 2002, the Legal Aid Services Council helps implement a new scheme to enable a legal aid applicant seeking an appeal to the Court of Final Appeal to obtain a counsel certificate to review refusal of legal aid by the Director of Legal Aid on merits. grounds. In 2002, aid was granted in respect of 86 applications, comprising 79 criminal cases and seven civil cases, with a total financial commitment of $2,316,000.
The Official Solicitor
The Director of Legal Aid has been appointed as the Official Solicitor under the Official Solicitor Ordinance since August 1, 1991.
The Official Solicitor's main duties are to act as guardian ad litem or next friend in legal proceedings for persons under disability of age or mental capacity, as representative of deceased persons' estates for the purpose of legal proceedings, as Official Trustee and Judicial Trustee, to act as committee of the estate of mentally incapacitated persons, to represent any party in care or protection proceedings and to act on behalf of a person committed to prison for contempt who is unable or unwilling to apply on his own behalf for release.
The Official Solicitor's case-load for 2001-02 was 226, an increase of 3.67 per cent over the previous financial year.
Director of Intellectual Property
The post of Director of Intellectual Property was established in 1990 as a statutory office by the Director of Intellectual Property (Establishment) Ordinance. The Intellectual Property Department operates the Trade Marks, Patents, Designs and Copyright Licensing Bodies Registries. The department is also responsible for making recommendations on policy and legislation related to intellectual property protection, provision of civil intellectual property legal advice to the Government, and promotion of public awareness of, and respect for, intellectual property rights.
The Rights of the Individual
The Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong and the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China provide that the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force. The HKSAR's first reports in the light of the two covenants were submitted to the United Nations (UN)
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