ENG-1959 — Page 256

Chapter 13: The Courts, Police, Prisons and Records

THE COURTS

THE Courts of Hong Kong include the Supreme Court, the District Court, the Magistrates' Courts, the Tenancy Tribunals and the Marine Court.

The Supreme Court consisted throughout the year of the Chief Justice, one Senior Puisne Judge and two Puisne Judges. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction similar to that of Her Majesty's Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer in England, the judges having the power to hear and determine criminal and civil cases with a jury, and to deliver convicts to gaol. The judges also have jurisdiction in Probate, Divorce, Admiralty and Bankruptcy. The Supreme Court is also a Court of Equity, with jurisdiction similar to that of the Court of Chancery in England, and has the same authority as the Lord High Chancellor of England to appoint and control guardians of infants and their estates, and keepers of persons of unsound mind who are unable to govern themselves and their estates.

The laws of England, as they existed on the 5th April 1843, apply in the Colony save insofar as they are inapplicable to the local circumstances of the Colony or its inhabitants or have been modified by laws passed by the Legislature of the Colony. The civil procedure of the courts was codified by the Code of Civil Procedure, which modified, and in some instances excluded, provi- sions made in the English Rules of Practice. A statement of the laws of Hong Kong will be found in Chapter 25.

All civil claims above $5,000 are heard in the Court's original jurisdiction, as well as all miscellaneous proceedings concerning questions arising on estates, appointments of trustees, and company

matters.

Magistrates hold preliminary inquiries into indictable offences and, if a prima facie case is made out, the accused are committed for trial at the criminal sessions, which are held once a month.