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LRC recommends to abolish "Year & a Day" Rule in homicide
The Secretary of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Stuart Stoker, announced today (Friday) that the Commission had decided to recommend the abolition of the "Year and a Day" Rule in homicide.
Mr Stoker explained that the "Year and a Day" Rule precluded prosecution for murder or manslaughter where the death of the victim occurred more than a year and a day after the original injury was inflicted. This common law rule dated from the Middle Ages but advances in medical science had rendered it, in the Commission's view, outmoded and unnecessary. The effects of the rule when applied to modern conditions could lead to unfortunate results, such as where, for instance, an accused could escape prosecution for murder because his victim had been kept alive on a life support machine for 13 months after the original injury. In England, the rule had been abolished in 1996 and a number of other jurisdictions had taken similar steps.
Mr Stoker said that a report containing the Commission's detailed proposals would be published as soon as possible, but that finalising the text and arranging for its translation and printing would probably take another two months.
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Payroll statistics for 4th quarter 1996
According to statistics released today (Friday) by the Census and Statistics Department, average labour earnings in all major sectors of the economy, as measured by payroll per person engaged, recorded an increase of 10.1% in nominal terms in the fourth quarter of 1996 over a year earlier. After discounting changes in consumer prices, there was a notable increase of 3.9% in real terms.
Analysed by industry sector, average payroll per person engaged in the manufacturing sector increased by 9.6% in nominal terms or 3.4% in real terms.
For the wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels sector, average payroll per person engaged increased by 6.1% in nominal terms or only 0.1% in real terms. The relatively modest increase in labour earnings in this sector was largely attributable to a slower increase in labour earnings in the import and export trades, as the growth in Hong Kong's external trade moderated last year. But earnings in the retail trade picked up further, on the back of improving consumer demand. Earnings in hotels also rose significantly.