Sources of Law - Legislation: Basic Law (HK)

Basic Law materials can be found in several locations in the Libraries. The Law Library holds a Basic Law collection, located on the 2nd floor of the Cheng Yu Tung Tower; some unique primary materials can also be found in the Special Collections, located on the 1st floor, New Wing of the Main Library.

To search for resources from HKU Libraries, check Find@HKUL > Advanced Search > Set Field = Subject

Type "Hong Kong", "Basic Law" to display a list of relevant copies.

Chinese version & English version of the Basic Law full text can be downloaded from this official site, http://www.basiclaw.gov.hk  which also contains useful downloadable reference materials, press release, speeches, multimedia resources and the Interpretation on the Basic Law and Decisions by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress related to Basic Law.

The Libraries’ digital initiative Basic Law Drafting History Online (BLDHO) is an online resource providing information and materials from the drafting history of Hong Kong's constitution, The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. BLDHO is a joint project of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and the HKU Libraries.

How to access BLDHO?

1. Begin from the Libraries Homepage > HKUL Digital Initiatives > Basic Law Drafting History Online
2. You can search either by keywords, title, author or BLDHO serial no.; alternatively, first-time users may find it easier to browse by author, date, draft text or official body.

Four databases are currently available for free public access, they are:

• Drafting Materials
• News Coverage
• Legco Database
• Textual History

The Basic Law Library located at the 5/F of City Hall Public Library. In essence it acts as a reference library aiming to serve the general public. The Basic Law Library stocks materials such as books, journals, multimedia information, CD-ROMs, online databases and newspaper clippings. It now has a collection of about 17,600 reference material items.

The Basic Law Collection can be searched via the Library's Online Public Access Catalogue.