TNAG-2116-FCO40-3021-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Sino-British-Joint-Declaration-action-ch-1990 — Page 44

CONFIDENTIAL

Whether the

Chinese need

to be consulted/

- 2 -

Annex I Section II: Legal System

CA Branch Liaison Officer: PAS(CA) 4

Date for HMG/HKG

10th Edition (June 1990)

deliberation

Item &

JD/BL reference

Action

informed and

to start

Officer

if so, timing

b. Development of bilingual laws

LD

Not necessary.

Already started

(JD 51) (BL Art. 9)

* Please mark an '*' against the officer with overall responsibility

CL3

Present Position

The programme for bilingual legislation is now underway, with several sinophone Counsel and Law Translation Officers in post. A Bilingual Laws Advisory Committee has been set up and is now advising on Chinese texts for existing laws with a view to having them declared as authentic texts under the Official Languages Ordinance.

The Standing Orders of Legislative Council have been amended to enable Bills to be introduced in English or Chinese and amendments to be made in either language. The Official Languages Ordinance has been amended to require every Ordinance (other than one which amends an English-only Ordinance)

Relevant Considerations

Nil

Target Completion Date

1995 (Chinese version of existing laws to be in place and requirement for new subsidiary legislation to be in English and Chinese to be in force.)

CONFIDENTIAL