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The laws in force in the HKSAR are:
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(1) |
the Basic Law; |
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(2) |
national laws listed in Annex III to the Basic Law; |
|
(3) |
the laws in force before July 1, 1997 that were adopted as laws
of the HKSAR by the Standing Committee of the NPC; and |
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(4) |
laws enacted by the legislature of the HKSAR. |
National laws relating to defence and foreign affairs,
as well as other matters outside the limits of the HKSAR's autonomy, may
be applied locally by way of promulgation or legislation by the HKSAR.
Currently, 11 national laws apply in the HKSAR.
All ordinances in force in the HKSAR are bilingual,
and their Chinese and English texts are equally authentic. Those ordinances,
and the subsidiary legislation made under them, are published in both
a hard-copy loose-leaf edition and in electronic form freely available
on the Internet. All new legislation is published in the Government
Gazette.
The Law Drafting Division of the Department of Justice
is responsible for drafting legislation in both official languages. From
time to time, the division publishes an English-Chinese glossary of legal
and relevant terms appearing in legislation and the third edition, containing
about 30 000 entries, was published in September 1998. A
Chinese-English Glossary of Legal Terms, containing around 11 500
terms, was published in December 1999. Both publications are available
in electronic form via the Internet, and in hard copy format. |
