TNAG-1611-FCO40-2214-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1987 — Page 83

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Although both the textual and linguistic aspects

of this bill are relatively simple and straight forward, a

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number of legal terminology relating to company law, law of

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real property and trust is employed throughout the bill. Many cap

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of these terms involve very important and fundamental legal

concepts which have never been formally translated into

Chinese before. Terms like estate in land", leasehold

interest, and

'purposes of the corporation" are just a few

examples. In order to find the most appropriate Chinese ex-

pressions for these terms so that they can be adopted for fu-

ture use in other relevant legislation, much discussion and

deliberation has taken place as to the choice of words. In the light of past experience, the Bilingual Legislation Ad hoc

Legislative Council Group in conjunction with the begGo Ad Hoc group invited rep- resentatives from various legal organisations as well as educational institutions to give their expert opinion on the linguistic aspects of the bill. Their enthusiastic support

and contribution has led to the successful completion of the

refined version of the Chinese text of this bill which will

shortly be published in the Gazette for public information.

Sir, as I have mentioned before, bilingual legis- lation is a new experience in Hong Kong. Its success depends on a number of factors which include adequate resources both within the Administration and in the Judiciary. However, it

that appears that at the moment there is still a serious shortage

personnel of experienced bilingual legal staff. We all recognize, Sir, the difficulties of recruitment to the Legal Department and the Judiciary. Nevertheless, I believe legal bilingualism is of such vital importance that greater emphasis must be placed on both attracting and keeping suitably qualified staff. less more vigorous measures are immediately taken by the Government to solve this problem, the progress of bilingual legislation may be severely hindered.

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