TNAG-1704-FCO40-2376-Crime-and-sentencing-in-Hong-Kong-various-ordinances-1988 — Page 55

ހ

CONFIDENTIAL

XCCI (87) 13 23

Gopy N

370-

For information (24.3.87)

Introduction

NOTE FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

COMPLEX COMMERCIAL CRIME

1449024

D

380/1

16 APR 1987

FICER

PA

REGISTRY

Action Taken

mek+

अ

The purpose of this memorandum is to inform members of the response of the Administration to the report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council on the problems involved in the prosecution and trial of complex commercial crimes.

Background

2

comment

Crimes

-

In

Jyly 1984 the

Attorney General sought public

on "The Problem of the Trial of Complex Commercial A Proposal for Reform". Following a period of public consultation, the Trial of Commercial Crimes Bill 1985 was drafted. It proposed the replacement of a judge and jury in certain complex commercial crime cases by a tribunal consisting of a judge and three commercial adjudications. The Bill was introduced into the Legislative Council on 13 March 1985. The Bill aroused a good deal of opposition. The main objections were that: the jury was an important safeguard of the rights of the individual, an integral part of our

part of our system of justice and should be retained; and it would be difficult to find impartial adjudicators for the proposed

the proposed tribunal view of the close-knit nature of the Hong Kong business sector.

3

in

A (then) UMELCO Ad Hoc Group was set up on 6 March 1985 to examine the Bill. It recommended that consideration of the Bill be adjourned and а Select Committee be established. On 1 May 1985 the Legislative Council appointed a Select Committee "to consider and report on the appropriate measures to be taken resolve the problems involved in the prosecution and trial of complex commercial crimes, including changes in the procedures before and during trial and the mode of trial". The Committee sat between 4 June and 2 August 1985. It focused on: what constitutes a complex commercial crime; and what are the problems and difficulties involved in the trial of complex commercial crime. Limited time was available to the Committee. It recommended that a further Select Committee be established in the 1985-86 session of the Legislative Council to consider the matter in the light of the (then to be published) U.K. Fraud Trials Committee Report (the Roskill Report).

CONFIDENTIAL

3