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The Department of Justice will implement a new document design of legislation, which will be adopted in the Gazette to be published tomorrow (July 30).
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said today (July 29), "Good document design leads to clearer communication. We have reviewed the format and visual aspects of the texts of our legislation, the format design of legislation in other common law jurisdictions and the possibilities now available to us with new word processing and printing technology. We have come to the conclusion that certain changes to the format and visual design of our texts of legislation can be made.
"Major changes include a larger font size for the main text, wider line spacing between paragraphs, restructured amending provisions as well as more informative headers.
"These changes will make the texts of legislation more user-friendly and modernise their appearance," the spokesperson added.
The Department of Justice has consulted the Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services of the Legislative Council.
Although the Department of Justice has designated July 15 as the cut off date for the implementation of the new document design, there are some yet to be gazetted legislative items prepared under the old format. Hence, some future Legal Supplements to the Gazette (including those to be published tomorrow) will contain legislative items both in the new and old format.
Ends/Thursday, July 29, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:32
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