Drafting Legislation in Hong Kong
A Guide to Styles and Practices
| Drafting Legislation in Hong Kong: A Guide to Styles and Practices is a collection of guidelines for drafting Hong Kong laws. It has been compiled by counsel of the Law Drafting Division of the Department of Justice, who draft all Government legislation. |
| The Guide provides a useful insight into the styles and practices used to draft Government Bills and subsidiary legislation. It is informative and practical and explains drafting styles and practices in general terms, illustrating them with hundreds of examples. It provides valuable guidelines on drafting issues from the arrangement of provisions to writing in plain language. Among the many questions it answers are— |
- How are Hong Kong’s laws structured?
- How do you draft in gender-neutral language?
- Should you use “shall” or “must” to impose an obligation in legal writing?
- What is the form of an offence provision?
Understanding the considerations that go into the design and writing of legislation enhances access to the law. With this in mind, the Guide aims to facilitate a clearer understanding of the law by statute users and to promote uniformity in drafting practices across both government and non-government legislation in Hong Kong.
Navigation Tips
Hypertext links are provided for numerous internal and external references in the Guide. These links are indicated by the cursor, which will change to a hand when placed over hypertext.
- The Bookmark and Table of Contents are linked to specific parts of the Guide.
- Internal links connect cross-references within the Guide, e.g. “see Chapter 4” or "see paragraph 3.2.7".
- Hyperlinks are provided for references to legal texts that are freely accessible online, e.g.
- References to legislation such as “Section 159G of the Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 200)” are directly linked to the relevant pages on BLIS (Bilingual Laws Information System).
- References to LegCo papers are linked to the relevant documents on the Legislative Council website.
- Some references are not linked but are searchable online, e.g.
- References to Bills and Amendment Ordinances published in the Gazette are available online on the eGazette. Users may search these using the year and keywords in the title provided in the references.
http://www.gld.gov.hk/cgi-bin/gld/egazette/index.cgi?lang=e - The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Reports (mentioned in the references to case law) are available in print. The judgments of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal can also be searched on the following websites.
http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/legal_ref/judgments.htm
http://www.hklii.hk/eng/
- References to Bills and Amendment Ordinances published in the Gazette are available online on the eGazette. Users may search these using the year and keywords in the title provided in the references.
Contact us
Comments on the Guide may be sent to: ldd@doj.gov.hk.