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In an important English case in 1965 the judge held that 40 pickets wore
too many where 300 out of a total workforce of over 8,000 were on strike.
He made it clear that he thought half a dozen at each entrance would have
been quite sufficient.
Further, it must be remembered that resistance or obstruction of an
intervening police officer is itself an offence. A genuine belief that
the officer is acting wrongly is of no avail if the court eventually decides
the officer was acting properly.
Limitations peculia to Hong Kong
What then is the effect of the Hong Kong additions to the law, in
particular the proviso to section 46 about which there has been discussion
in recent weeks? ·
In my view the proviso and subsection (2) of section 47)are basically
a mere restatement of the common law restrictions which, as I have shown,
exist anyway.
The problem caused by these provisions have been misunderstood
by those who have commented on them in recent weeks. The proviso specifically
>
makes unlawful picketing which is calculated (i.e., likely) to intimidate.
In English law intimidation involves the threat or actuality of personal
violence. But in Hong Kong section 2 defines intimidation differently.
is this, not the proviso itself, which is what is wrong with our law.
It
In section 2 "intimidation" means "to cause in the mind of a person a
reasonable apprehension of injury to himself or to any member of his
は
family or to any of his defendants or of violence or damage to any person or
property. "Injury" is then defined as including "injury to a person in
respect of his business, occupation, employment or other source of income."
These definitions have been taken from the repealed English Act of 1927.
In the words of Citrine they are in "such wide terms as substantially to
prohibit picketing of any kind Thus, if an employer, in premises
It can
picketed, reasonably apprehended a loss in his business as a consequence of
the picketing, it [is] a criminal offence within the section".
fairly be said therefore that in Hong Kong there is, despite the first
paragraph of section 46, no right to picket at all.
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