TNAG-1826-FCO40-2594-Hong-Kong-courts-and-legal-system-1988 — Page 8

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What is worth noting is that if the British government has broken a contract or committed an act of tort, the victim cannot take legal action according to the "Crown Proceedings Ordinance"

(20)

in a Hong Kong law court

(21)

but can only institute legal proceedings against the British government according to Britain's "Crown Proceedings Act" in the law courts in Britain On the other hand, British law courts cannot deal with those acts for which the

Hong Kong Government (and not the British Government) are legally responsible

(22) according to Britain's "Crown Proceedings Act" either.

Review of administrative act by the court

One branch under the present legal system of Hong Kong and the UK is

the administrative law, and one of the major areas of the administrative law

is the judicial review of the administrative act(23) The system of judicial

review and the civil proceedings involving the government referred to above

complement and supplyment each other. First, if a public servant commits an

act of tort under the civil law without legal authority (or other acts

that violate the civil law), the victim can file a civil lawsuit demanding

compensation or injunction on the act of tort. This will neither involve the

"Crown Proceedings Ordinance", nor the issue of judicial review of administrative act

Take unlawful arrest of a citizen by the police as an example, the citizen concerned can sue that particular police officer for compensation.

Secondly, if it is not an individual public servant who has

committed an act of tort under the civil law (or an act that violates the

civil law), but a certain government department, then the channel for the victim to

seek judicial remedy

will be to take legal proceedings under the

abovementioned "Crown Proceedings Ordinance". Generally speaking, the

legal responsibility of the government and the people are the same in civil

proceedings. As regards the scope of exceptions,

this is clearly

defined in the law.

Thirdly, if a person, an officer or a certain government body is authorized by law to exercise certain power and to make decisions that involve the interests of others, but when exercising such power and making such decisions, the authorised does not comply with the relevant legal principles, then under such. circumstances, the victim may apply to the Supreme Court requesting the court to carry out a judicial review of the relevant decision and to revoke the unlawful or ultra vires decision, or

perhaps order compensation to the victim at the same time. This is the

so-called the system of judicial review of administrative acts.

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