5 -
Bill to codify preliminary offences introduced into LegCo
A bill seeking to codify the preliminary offences of conspiracy, attempt and incitement was introduced into the Legislative Council today (Wednesday).
Moving the second reading of the Crimes (Amendment) Bill 1995, the Attorney General, the Hon Jeremy Mathews, said the offences of incitement, conspiracy and attempt formed an important part of the criminal law. "They provide sanctions against those who are engaged in activities preparatory to objectives which are prohibited by law," he said.
However, he noted that in Hong Kong, the law governing these preliminary offences was based almost entirely on judicial precedents and was in certain respects unclear and lacking in precision.
The Bill seeks to implement the recommendations in the Law Reform Commission's (LRC) Report published in March last year.
Mr Mathews said that as the LRC recommended, codification of these preliminary offences would enhance accessibility of the law in that it would no longer be necessary to consult a large number of cases to find out what the law was.
The law would also become more comprehensible to lawyers and non-lawyers alike and more certain in its operation, he noted.
Explaining the offence of conspiracy, Mr Mathews said the offence at common law consisted of an agreement between two or more persons to effect some unlawful purpose.
*
In respect of the offence of conspiracy, the Bill provides for:
a statutory definition of the elements constituting the offence of 'conspiracy', which is essentially an agreement by two or more persons to do an act amounting to or involving an offence; and
abolition of the two common law offences of conspiracy to corrupt public morals and conspiracy to outrage public decency.