TNAG-1606-FCO40-22121-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 118

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DRAFT SPEECH BY HON. MARTIN LEE, QC, JP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 25TH MARCH 1987

-

Official Languages (Amendment) Bill 1986

With regard to

the proposed committee stage

a mendment to the new section 4C (1) (a) relating to the functions

Committee I should like to

of the Bilingual

Association

Laws Advisory

and

the

record a note of reservation on behalf of the Hong Kong Bar

Law Society of Hong Kong, whose

representatives h ad met with the Ad hoc Group and

Administration on several occasions for detailed discussions.

the

The proposed amendment in effect states that the

Bilingual Laws Advisory Committee may make recommendations to

the Governor in Council as to which existing ordinances should

receive priority in the

translation programme.

amendment appears to be an improvement on the bill

Whilst the

as gazetted,

it will in reality be meaningless if the resources of the Legal

Department's Law Drafting Division are swallowed up in the task

of complying with section

which provides that all new

ordinances must be enacted and published in bilingual form.

The wisdom of section 4 is open to doubt. Although it makes

provision

for an

ordinance

to be published

in one official