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The Law Drafting Division of the Department of Justice has produced a bilingual glossary of legal terms used in electoral legislation for handy reference by those working on the upcoming elections.

The glossary, indexed by alphabetical order in English and by the number of character stokes in Chinese, contains some 660 terms and expressions that can be found in electoral legislation enacted from last August to the end of February this year.

"The Glossary is one of the Department's ongoing efforts to promote bilingualism in law. It is intended to be a useful reference tool for the legal profession, academics, translators, journalists, members of political parties, election candidates, and anyone who is interested in the bilingual legal system," the Law Draftsman, Mr Tony Yen said.

"Arranged in a user-friendly way, the Glossary contains an exhaustive list of terms that appears in Electoral Legislation, many of which are new to general users," he said.

"The Glossary also includes relevant information such as the specific section of the legislation from the text of which the relevant entry is selected," he said.

Apart from terms frequently found in Electoral Legislation, users can also find useful information, including lists of constituencies and allocation of seats, functional constituencies, sub-sectors, and the system of voting and counting of votes.

"As we are at present preparing for the third edition of the comprehensive English-Chinese Glossary of Legal Terms and the first edition of the Chinese-English Glossary of Legal Terms, any comments on the special glossary are most welcome, " Mr Yen added.

The glossary is accessible at the web site of the Department of Justice at www.justice.gov.hk/glossary/index.htm.

End/Friday, April 17, 1998

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