Hong Kong's legal system is reflected by its unique history. Hong Kong had been under British administration for 156 years as a British colony and later a British Dependent Territory from 1841 to 1997. On 1 July 1997, the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China took place ushering in a new era for Hong Kong as a special administrative region.
It had been agreed that The People's Republic of China would preside over Hong Kong under the principle of one country, two systems with a high degree of autonomy for the 50 years post-handover. In addition to which The Basic Law of Hong Kong was enacted in aims to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of locals, in principle acting as a mini constitution.
As a result of this rich history, with its British heritage, Hong Kong remains based on the common law system, influenced by the laws and legal traditions of England. In addition to which Hong Kong is a bilingual legal system, operating in both Chinese and English as official languages.
The highest court in Hong Kong is the Court of Final Appeal, and the legal system is separated into three branches: the judiciary, the executive, and the legislative.
The Court of Final Appeal
The Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The Former French Mission Building which housed The Court of Final Appeal between 1997 and 2015
Please be reminded that cases or judgments are not indexed in FIND@HKUL. To look for full text cases, you will have to search in relevant legal databases, or search by the full title of a law report in FIND@HKUL with "Books+" search scope.
Alternatively, you may change to Advance Search and enter the following search term for all available law reports within the HKUL Collection:
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?
Four databases are currently available for free public access, they are:
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.
The Authorised Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest [HKLRD]
HKLRD is the authorised law report endorsed by the Hong Kong Judiciary. It incorporates both the Hong Kong Law Digest [HKLD] and Hong Kong Law Reports [HKLR] into one law report in 1997. Cases are selected by the Hon. Mr. Justice Bokhary GBM, NPJ, General Editor, covering judgments from 1972. It can be used to trace citations and brief details of cases, or to identify cases relevant to a particular subject area, such as company law, criminal law and procedure, election law, etc.
The law report HKLRD published by Sweet & Maxwell, a child publisher of Thomson Reuter, is available in our collection in print and electronic access as details below:
The Authorised Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Reports [HKCFAR]
Similar to HKLRD, HKCFAR is the authorised law reports of the judgments of the Court of Final Appeal, consisting of judgments of great significance. All headnotes are reviewed by the Court of Final Appeal. Chinese translations of headnotes, subject index, and index of cases and table are available.
The law report HKCFAR published by Sweet & Maxwell since 1997, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuter, is available in our collection in print and electronic access as shown below:
Hong Kong Cases [HKC]
Published by Butterworths Asia, LexisNexis, HKC provides a comprehensive selection of the most significant decisions of, and appeals from, Hong Kong courts, from its founding as a colony through to its transition to Chinese sovereignty. Chinese catchwords and English summaries of Chinese judgments can also be found.
The Hong Kong Law Reports [HKLR]
H.K.L.R. contains reports of the Supreme Court cases starting from 1905 to 1996. The reporting is continued as Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest [HKLRD] in 1997.
Supplement volumes of the HKLR were published regarding cases of different courts. Below are some examples:
Hong Kong Criminal Law Reports [HKCLR]
Hong Kong District Court Law Reports [HKDCLR]
Hong Kong Lands Tribunal Law Reports [HKLTLR]
Hong Kong Chinese Law Reports & Translations [HKCLRT]
This series is fully bilingual with official English translations of judgments by the Judiciary, covering 1995 through 2008 in seven volumes. English translations are provided alongside the Chinese judgments, with fully bilingual catchwords and headnotes
Print: 1995 – 2008 (PR KT4358.2 H7 C53)
Electronic: 1995 – 2008 (via Westlaw Asia)
Hong Kong Conveyancing and Property Reports [CPR]
Deals with all aspects of conveyancing and property in Hong Kong. Previously unreported cases, particularly from the Lands Tribunal, are also contained in the reports.
Print: 1980 – present (PR KT4358.2 H7 C7)
Hong Kong Family Law Reports [HKFLR]
This collection of judgments offers evidence of the intellectual arguments surrounding judicial discretion in the full spectrum of family law cases.
Print: 2005 – present (PR KT4358.25 F19)
Electronic: 2005 – present (via Lexis+ Hong Kong)
Hong Kong Public Law Reports [HKPLR]
This set contains cases relating to aspects of public law, notably those arising from the application of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance. Since 1996, HKPLR appears together with the loose parts of Hong Kong Cases, in addition to a separate bound volume at the end of each year.
Print: 1991 – present (PR KT4358.2 H7 P)
Electronic: 1991-94 (via HKU Press digital editions)
Hong Kong Law Digest [HKLD]
Monthly issues are accumulated annually to form the Hong Kong Law Yearbook (1985-1993) and Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook (1994-1996). This titles legacy is continued via the Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest [HKLRD].
Print: 1989-1996 (HKS340 H77 C9) *Located at Special Collection Serial Collection
Hong Kong Law Yearbook [HKLY]
Annual accumulation of Hong Kong law digest, continued by Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook [HKLDY].
Print: 1985-1993 (PR KT4360 H7 L4 Y)
Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook [HKLDY]
A source for tracing legal developments in Hong Kong. Each monthly issue consists of a subject arrangement of digests of significant cases decided. The Yearbook is the annual cumulation of the Digest and is similar in arrangement and contents.
Print: 1994-1996 (PR KT4360 H7 L4 Y)
Hong Kong Law Digest [HKLD]
Monthly issues are accumulated annually to form Hong Kong Law Yearbook (1985-1993) and Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook (1994-1996). This title is continued by Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest [HKLRD].
Print: 1989-1996 (HKS340 H77 C9) *Located at Special Collection Serial Collection
Hong Kong Law Yearbook [HKLY]
Annual accumulation of Hong Kong law digest, continued by Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook [HKLDY].
Print: 1985-1993 (PR KT4360 H7 L4 Y)
Hong Kong Law Digest Yearbook [HKLDY]
A source for tracing legal developments in Hong Kong. Each monthly issue consists of a subject arrangement of digests of significant cases decided. The Yearbook is the annual accumulation of the Digest and is similar in arrangement and contents.
Print: 1994-1996 (PR KT4360 H7 L4 Y)
Cases heard in the courts may not be formally published in law reports. To locate these cases, you may use the following publications:
The Unreported Judgments Series
The Series are kept in binders and arranged by branches of law. Each series has its own indexes of judgments by action number, case name and judgment date.
Hong Kong Unreported Judgments
Hong Kong Cases Unreported
This loose-leaf edition of the Laws of Hong Kong, is published by the Authority of the Attorney General Hong Kong. It is being phased out since the launch of Hong Kong e-Legislation (HKeL). During this transition period, the hard copy of yet to be verified chapters are updated through a process of the replacement of pages. Once a chapter is verified and made available on HKeL, a purple Check List will be issued to replace the whole chapter. Users should refer to the chapter on HKeL for the latest version or verified copy with legal status.
The Government of the Hong Kong Administrative Region Gazette (1997-)
Hong Kong Government Gazette (1855-1997)
Apart from the website of the Government of the Hong Kong Administrative Region Gazette and the Gazette via HKeL mentioned above, the Libraries also hold print copies of the Gazette collection. The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Gazette consists of seven parts, one main and 6 supplements. With the addition of extraordinary gazettes that are published on a needs basis.
Hong Kong Government Gazette (Main) - Government public notices and declarations
Print: 1947 – 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7)
Legal Supplement no. 1 (法律副刊) - Ordinances (條例)
Print: 1844 – 1997; 1997 – present (PR KT4351 H7 S1)
Legal Supplement no. 2 (法律副刊) - Regulations (規例)/ Subsidiary legislation 附屬法例)
Print: 1844 - 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S2)
Legal Supplement no. 3 (Blue Paper 法律副刊) - Bills (條例草案)
Print: 1948 - 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S3)
Special Supplement no. 4 (特別副刊) - Directories & lists of people authorized to perform certain functions under Ordinances, e.g. doctors
Print: 1948 - 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S4)
Special Supplement no. 5 (特別副刊) - Treaties (條約) & international agreements (協定)
Print: 1953 - 1962; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S5)
Supplement no. 6 (副刊 公共啟事) - Public notices (公共啟事) under the Companies Ordinance or notices relating to trademarks
Print: 1968 - 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S6)
Legal Supplement no. 7 (法律副刊) - Declaration orders (宣布令) & notices (公告) including all authorized Chinese translations of ordinances
Print: 1992 - 1997 (PR KT4351 H7 S7)
Extraordinary (號外) - Supplementary public notices published in between the regular Supplements
Print: 1969 - 1997; 1997 - present (PR KT4351 H7 S9)
HKU Libraries offers old gazette (1842-1941) on open access, more information is available under the Digital Initiatives tab.
Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online
The Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online is a full-text image database providing access to past revised editions of Hong Kong Laws. The database comprises a total of seven consolidations of the laws of Hong Kong: 1890, 1901, 1912, 1923, 1937, 1950, and 1964 (last updated to 1989).
Hong Kong Government Reports Online
Hong Kong Government Reports Online (HKGRO) is a full-text image database providing online access to pre-World War II (1842-1941) issues of four major government publications. They are:
HKGRO contains information, such as official notifications, proceedings of the Legislative Council, statistics, and reports of government departments and special committees.
The Law Library offers an extensive collection of commentaries on different areas of law through our print collection and electronic access. Hong Kong Textbook and Reserve Collections locate on the first floor.
Below are highlighted three encyclopaedic-type references in Hong Kong law for your information as a starting point of your research. They are:
Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong
Halsbury's Laws of Hong Kong, covering both judicial and legislative sources, divides the Laws into 80-odd subject areas. Each subject area provides a statement of the law with extensive footnotes referring to relevant Hong Kong cases and legislation. The hardcopy format is published in 27 volumes, updated with a supplementary Current Service loose-leaf.
Annotated Legislation
A selection of 40+ ordinances are made available through Westlaw Asia, with section-by-section annotations and cross references to other legal materials like case law, Subsidiary Ordinances and etc.
Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong
With section-by-section annotations to 139 frequently-referenced ordinances, and an introduction explaining the history and purpose of the statue.
From the Judiciary’s website, you may find various kinds of legal and judicial resources including court services and facilities, court diaries, judgments, and legal references, etc. Please be aware that not all judgments will be available on Judiciary’s Judgments website. To obtain a copy of judgment not available on the Judgments website, you may make your application to the relevant court registry (link) with justifications. A fee may be applied upon an approval of the application.
The Basic Law Court Case Database contains court cases extracted from "Hong Kong Basic Law: Case Studies (1997-2010) (Articles 1-42)" and "Hong Kong Basic Law: Case Studies (1997-2010) (Articles 43-160)". Please note that the list of court case is available in Chinese only.
Hong Kong e-Legislation (HKeL) is the official database of Hong Kong legislation, maintained by the Department of Justice (DoJ). It provides open access to current and past versions of consolidated legislation dating back to June 30, 1997. PDF copies that are marked as “verified copy” have official legal status.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Gazette
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Gazette, is an official channel for promulgating legislation, public notices, appointments and other information under statutory requirement. It is frequently published on Fridays, by the Director of Government Logistics. Its official website covers:
HKeL has included Legal Supplements No. 1, 2, 3 and 6 since 1990 and all Legal Supplement No.7 of the Hong Kong Government Gazette since 1990 for easy reference whilst researching. To access the Gazette information, you can simply click on the "Gazette" tab on the menu bar of HKeL.
The Legislative Council (LegCo) Bills Database contains key dates and the amendment history of Bills considered by the LegCo since 1844. The Bills Database keeps tracks of the passage of a Bill and the related key documents and dates including the gazettal of a Bill, three readings, formation and reports submitted to the corresponding Bills Committee, and relevant discussions in Council meetings.
Official Record of Proceedings (LegCo)
The Legislative Council Hansard Database contains the official record of proceedings in Council meetings of the Legislative Council since the fifth Legislative Council (2012-2013).
Combined DoJ Glossaries of Legal Terms
This combined Glossary was compiled by the Law Drafting Division of the Department of Justice and is a handy reference tool for looking up bilingual legal terms and expressions used in the Hong Kong legislation.
Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII)
A project jointly established by HKU Department of Computer Science and Faculty of Law, HKLII serves to provide free access to the primary legal materials of Hong Kong for the general public in aim to promote and support the rule of law in Hong Kong.
HKLII contains judgments from Court of Final Appeal (1997-), Court of Final Appeal (1946-), Court of First Instance (1946-), District Court (1946-), Family Court (1973-), Competition Tribunal (2017-), Lands Tribunal (1982-), UK Privy Council (1861-1997), and Miscellaneous Courts (2005-). More details are available here.