TNAG-0860-FCO40-1070-Legislation-for-merchant-shipping-in-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 18

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SPEECH BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER 1979

LEGAL PRACTITIONERS ORDINANCE

(Chapter 159)

Sir,

I move the fourth motion standing in my name

on the Order Paper.

In March of this year the then Attorney General introduced into this Council a Bill to amend the Legal Practitioners Ordinance. The Bill had two main objects. First to reconstitute the Advisory Committee on Legal Education with an enlarged membership and new terms of

reference. One of these was to advise on the future demand

for lawyers and the means whereby that demand may be met.

The second object was to introduce some restriction

on eligibility for admission to the roll of students maintained by the Law Society of Hong Kong. This roll effectively determines which students may ultimately qualify for

at s

admission as solicitors apart from those who first qualify as English solicitors wholly in England.

The need for this restriction, described by the then Attorney General as "an unwelcome one", arose in this way. For many years the English Law Society has provided examination facilities in Hong Kong so that students may qualify for admission as solicitors here without having to go to England either for examination or for the purposes of articles. This is one of the three main methods by which students may now qualify for admission in Hong Kong.

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