HONG KONG
LEGAL REPORT
SOCIETIES (AMENDMENT)(NO. 3) ORDINANCE 1988
(No. 71 of 1988)
Enclosure No. 2
This Ordinance amends the Societies Ordinance. Prior to its enactment all partnerships of more than 20 persons were required to be registered under the latter Ordinance. The effect of the amending Ordinance is to exclude from the requirement to register all partnerships if they are formed for the purpose of carrying on any lawful business and are registered under another Ordinance e.g. under the Business Registration Ordinance.
2. Until 1978 the Companies Ordinance prohibited the formation of partnerships of more than 20 persons. The Societies Ordinance should have been amended in consequence in 1978 but was not. Since 1978 professional partnerships of more than 20 persons have come into being, and the provisions of the Societies Ordinance, at least on occasion, ignored.
3. The legal effect of failure to register under the Societies Ordinance has been raised in court. While section 1(3) of the amending Ordinance excludes from the operation of the amending Ordinance current proceedings, the amending Ordinance is otherwise made. retrospective to 1978 in order to avoid further questions arising as to the legality of the acts of the offending partnerships.
4.
Before the Deputy to the Governor assented to the Bill in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, the Attorney General advised that he could properly do so.
JR Garfend
Acting Law Draftsman.
August 1988.
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,
HONG KONG.
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