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Administration of Justice Bill
Following is the speech by the Attorney General, the Hon Jeremy Mathews, in moving the second reading of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill 1995 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Bill 1995 be read a second time.
The purpose of this Bill is to make improvements to the law relating to the administration of justice and legal services, to reform the law relating to press freedom, to repeal or amend certain provisions which are inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Ordinance, and to make miscellaneous minor amendments to our laws. The Bill is part of an on-going process in my department of keeping the law relating to the administration of justice under constant review, in order to ensure that it is efficient and effective.
Administration of Justice and Legal Services
The Bill proposes to amend the law relating to the administration of justice and legal services in three major ways.
First, clause 8 of the Bill improves the administration of criminal justice by providing that a party to criminal proceedings who proposes to introduce expert evidence shall give advance notice to the other party. Under the present law, there is no requirement for the defence to give any advance information to the prosecution except an alibi defence in the case that is tried on indictment. The absence of such a requirement can cause unfairness to the prosecution where expert evidence is tendered by the defence at trial. Counsel for the prosecution may be taken by surprise by this and may not be able to contest the evidence. This may lead to misconceived scientific evidence being unchallenged, or to the trial being adjourned whilst the prosecution obtains its own expert evidence. Thus it is proposed that advance notice of expert evidence should be given.