BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Legal systems throughout the world differ one from another so that a lawyer well-qualified and experienced in one may be completely ignorant of the laws in another. The laws of the United States have little in common with the laws of Hong Kong. In the U.S.A., there is a written constitution, no distinction between barristers and solicitors and different standards of professional ethics and practice. An American lawyer well-versed in U.S. constitutional law, U.S. civil pro- cedure, U.S. tax law and the United Commercial Code may have no know- ledge of the equivalent but wholly different provisions of Hong Kong law. Other countries, such as France, have laws originating in Roman law and then again there are the socialist countries, notably China, whose laws and legal culture are totally different from any of the above. It must be remembered that, notwithstanding these differences, the Government's proposal will apply to all foreign lawyers no matter what differences cxist between the laws of the jurisdic- tion in which they are qualified and the laws of Hong Kong.
The general rule in jurisdictions throughout the world is that no person may advise on law, foreign or domes- tic, unless he is qualified to advise on the laws of that jurisdiction by passing exams and being formally admitted to the profession there. It is an extension of that principle that qualified lawyers may not be employed by or in partner- ship with unqualified persons (and this includes lawyers qualified in other jurisdictions). In Hong Kong, these rules are to be found in the Legal Practitioners Ordinance, and breaches of them have hitherto been considered sufficiently serious to merit fines and imprisonment. This is so:-
firstly in order to maintain stand- ards. Only qualified persons should provide legal advice and have the management of such matters as professional training, professional conduct and discipline;
- secondly to avoid the conflicts of interest which may arise when qualified persons are employed or in partnership with unqualified persons; and
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