TNAG-0305-FCO40-341-Use-of-Chinese-as-official-language-in-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 137

SECTION E: QUESTIONS REFERRED TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE BY THE

CHINESE LANGUAGE COMMITTEE

+

Paragraphs

27

Government contracts .

27(i)

Government licences and certificates .

27(ii)

Statutory Declarations

27(iii)

Statutory Forms .

27(iv)

Non-statutory standard forms used in the Judiciary, the Registrar General's Department and Legal Aid Department

27(v)

Statements made by suspects and prospective witnesses to the police, including cautioned

statements

27(vi)

Letters from Government departments to Chinese

speaking members of the public on legal matters 27(vii) The problems of enacting future Ordinances and

subsidiary legislation in the Chinese language 27(viii)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LIST OF APPENDICES

28 - 29

Pages

APPENDIX I

(paragraph 3)

Matters on which suggestions and opinions were

sought

18

APPENDIX II

(paragraph 3)

List of Replies from local Organizations and

Individuals

19

·

APPENDIX III Questionnaire sent to foreign governments (paragraph 4)

APPENDIX IV Stages for translation of 'Laws of Hong Kong' (paragraph 19)

20

20

21

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REPORT OF THE LEGAL SUB-COMMITTEE

TO THE

CHINESE LANGUAGE COMMITTEE

INTRODUCTION

On the 24th November, 1970 the Chairman of the Chinese Language Committee appointed a sub-committee designated the Legal Sub-Committee, with the following members:

Judge T. L. YANG, LL.B. (Hons.) (Lond.), Barrister-at-law Michael WONG, Esq., LL.B. (L'pool), Barrister-at-law Woo Po-shing, Esq., LL.B. (Lond.), F.I.ARB., Solicitor Patrick S. S. Yu, Esq., B.A. (Oxon.), Barrister-at-law

2. The Terms of Reference are:

'To consider

A.

Chairman

Member

Member

Member

whether or not Chinese, both spoken and written, can be given equal status with English in the Courts, and, if so, how discrepancies, if any, between the two languages may be resolved.

B. whether or not it is practicable to publish the Hong Kong laws in both English and Chinese, if so, which language should prevail in case of discrepancies.

C. if the answer to (A) is yea, what recommendations could be made; if any, whether or not Chinese may be used more widely than at present; and if so, to what extent.

D. other legal matters which may be considered material under the Terms

of Reference of this Sub-committee.

E. other legal matters which may from time to time be referred to the

Sub-committee by the main Committee.'

The Sub-committee also considers itself bound by the Terms of Reference given by His Excellency the Governor to the Chinese Language Committee.

3. In order to obtain the opinions and suggestions of professional, academic and other related bodies, questionnaires were sent to the following:

Department of Law, Hong Kong University

Hong Kong Bar Association

Hong Kong Law Society

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