President,

I move that the Adaptation of Laws (Courts and Tribunals) Bill be read the second time. The Bill aims to adapt references to courts and tribunals, and titles of judges in over 230 Ordinances.

The Hong Kong Reunification Ordinance, enacted by this Council on July 1, 1997, has provided for the establishment of courts in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Section 8 of the Ordinance amends section 3 of the Supreme Court Ordinance (Cap. 4) to establish the High Court (known as the Supreme Court before reunification), which consists of the Court of First Instance (formerly known as the High Court) and the Court of Appeal. Section 9 provides that the District Court, magistracies and every other court (apart from the Supreme Court) in existence immediately before July 1, 1997, are established as the equivalent courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Section 6 of the Hong Kong Reunification Ordinance contains a new Schedule 8 to the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance (Cap. 1) to provide for the construction on and after July 1, 1997, of words and expressions in laws previously in force. Items 7 to 10, and 12 to 14 of the Schedule provide for the construction of words and expressions relating to court nomenclature and titles of judges in accordance with the court terminology adopted in the Basic Law. However, it remains necessary to textually amend these words and expressions in the laws of Hong Kong so as to obviate the need to read our laws against the particular principles of construction of words and expressions as provided in the Hong Kong Reunification Ordinance.

The Bill has three objectives. The first objective is to adapt, in a comprehensive manner, 11 Ordinances relating directly to the administration of justice (such as those establishing the various courts in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region). It is considered essential that terms and provisions in these Ordinances which are not in conformity with the Basic Law or the status of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, should be removed or amended as soon as possible. These amendments will provide a clearer statutory basis on which our judicial system operates.

The second objective of the Bill is to adapt court nomenclature and titles of judges in about 220 other Ordinances not directly related to the administration of justice. These amendments will remove any uncertainties that may arise in interpreting these references in accordance with the provisions of the Hong Kong Reunification Ordinance, and will avoid the absurdity whereby some references to courts can be taken as they are, while other references to the same courts have to be read against the Ordinance and be construed in accordance with particular principles of construction of words and expressions.

The last objective of the Bill is to adapt references to court nomenclature and titles of judges in the Supreme Court Ordinance (Cap. 4). Other aspects in the Ordinance which involve less straight-forward adaptations, e.g. references to English law, will be dealt with separately, after we have fully studied the implications for the operation of the Court.

As in other adaptation of laws Bills, this Bill will in general have retrospective effect to July 1, 1997, after enactment. This retrospectively will ensure consistency in the interpretation of our laws before and after the enactment of this Bill. However, it will not apply to criminality. This restriction is in line with Article 15 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong.

As this Bill is essential for the smooth operation of the judicial machinery in Hong Kong, I commend it to this Council for early passage into law.