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In fact representatives from the above institutions have already been co-opted into the Education Committee since 1994 for reasons outlined above, but as co-opted members in the Committee, they do not have voting rights. The Academy is of the view that it would be more appropriate to turn these co-opted members into permanent members so that they can have the right to vote.
The Amendment Regulation was proposed and determined by a postal ballot. The resolution seeks this Council's approval of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (Amendment) Regulation. This will enable the representatives of the relevant institutions to become permanent members of the Education Committee.
Mr President, I beg to move.
End
Arbitration (Amendment) Bill
Following is the speech by the Attorney General, the Hon Jeremy Mathews, in moving the second reading of the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 1996 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Mr President,
I move that the Arbitration (Amendment) Bill 1996 be read the second time.
As members of this Council know, arbitration is a form of dispute resolution that is becoming increasingly popular, especially in the commercial field. Under the current law, two systems of arbitration exist in parallel in Hong Kong: one for domestic arbitrations and the other for international arbitrations. The purposes of this Bill are to extend the powers of arbitral tribunals in respect of the conduct of arbitration proceedings and to bring certain provisions of the Arbitration Ordinance relating to domestic arbitrations in line with those relating to international arbitrations, and vice versa.
In 1991, there was a proposal in England to reform the English law of arbitration. In the light of that development, in January 1992, I invited Mr Justice Kaplan (as he then was) to set up and chair a committee of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre to consider whether amendments to the Arbitration Ordinance were required. The committee consulted the arbitration community on the matter. There was strong support for a simple arbitration law and also a unitary arbitral system.