ENG-1990 — Page 62

THE LEGAL SYSTEM

Local legislation (that is, ordinances passed by the Legislative Council and assented to by the Governor) usually starts with one of the policy branches of the Hong Kong Government formulating drafting instructions for the Drafting Division of the Attorney General's Chambers. The instructions are prepared after consultation with the relevant government departments and, if appropriate, with interested public groups, as to the policy to adopt. After a bill has been drafted, it is submitted to the Governor in Council for approval to submit it to the Legislative Council. If the bill is passed by vote of the Legislative Council, the Governor is empowered to enact by giving his assent to it and it is passed into law.

The laws of Hong Kong are published in a 32-volume loose booklet compilation known as The Laws of Hong Kong. This is brought up to date annually.

In much the same way that the common law of England has evolved, so has that of Hong Kong, based on the English common law and rules of equity, following and applying local ordinances and English or United Kingdom Acts where applicable. The Hong Kong courts apply a doctrine of binding precedent similar to that adopted by the English courts. The Hong Kong Court of Appeal is bound by its own previous decisions. Appeal from the Court of Appeal lies to the Privy Council and it was said in a Full Court case in 1973 that *any relevant decision of the Privy Council' was binding on the Hong Kong courts.

The Attorney General's Chambers has assumed responsibility for drafting new laws in both Chinese and English and translating existing laws into Chinese. The Chinese text will be an authentic version of the laws that the courts can look to, with the English text, in ascertaining the meaning of an enactment. The first piece of bilingual new legislation was enacted on April 13, 1989. Since then, all new principal legislation has been enacted bilingually. On the translation of existing laws, a committee known as the Bilingual Laws Advisory Committee was set up by government in October 1988 to advise on the publication of Chinese texts of existing ordinances. The committee examines the Chinese texts prepared by the Law Drafting Division of the Attorney General's Chambers and recommends the Governor in Council to declare these texts an authentic version of the laws. Some 520 public ordinances will have to be translated in the years to come.

Bill of Rights

In Hong Kong the basic social and political freedoms that people enjoy have always been taken for granted. These are backed up by many different provisions of statutory and common law. In addition, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have been extended to Hong Kong since 1976. And their continued application beyond 1997 is guaranteed in the Joint Declaration.

In view of the strong support in the community for these freedoms to be embodied in a Bill of Rights, the government introduced the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Bill 1990 into the Legislative Council in July 1990. The bill gives effect in local law to the relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as applied to Hong Kong. This means that if anyone believes that their civil or political rights, as defined in the covenant, have been violated they will be able to seek redress in the courts. Meanwhile, a com- prehensive review of all existing laws is underway to remove any areas of doubt about their compatibility with the bill. This review will take some time to complete, and to avoid unnecessary uncertainties, provision has been made in the bill for a limited period after its enactment during which existing laws cannot be challenged under the bill.

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