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Legal Research 101

Your starting point for conducting effective legal research in Hong Kong.

Types of Legislation in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, legislation is categorized into two main types:

Primary Legislation:

  • Includes ordinances enacted by the Legislative Council and national laws outlined in Annex III of the Basic Law.
  • establish broad principles to address the key points relevant to different areas of law.

Subsidiary Legislation: 

  • Consists of detailed rules and regulations created under the authority of an ordinance.
  • providing technical and procedural details needed for the effective implementation of primary legislation.

To access both primary and subsidiary legislation, visit Hong Kong e-Legislation (HKeL), the official database managed by the Department of Justice.

 

The Law-making Process: From Bill to Law 

The infographic below illustrates the key steps in the law-making process. For in-depth information, we recommend consulting the documents from the Legislative Council and the Department of Justice.

Click on info icon for more information and helpful tips!

 

Bills offer valuable insight into the intentions behind proposed laws, enabling researchers to understand the rationale for legal changes. You can find bills in Legal Supplement No. 3 of the Gazette, which is accessible through the following databases and webpages:

  • Bills Database - Legislative Council
    This user-friendly database allows you to search for bills since the 1850s by: Title of the Ordinance, Title of the Bill, Title of the Bills Committee, or Keywords. 
     
  • LegCo Business > Bills
    Offers a browsing feature for bills since the 1995-96 session, with links to the Gazette, Official Record of Proceedings, and visualizations showing the progress of each bill.  Below is an example for the Courts (Remote Hearing) Bill:
    Show how to check progress of a bill
  • Government Gazette > Search for Legal Notices by Keywords
    Enables you to search for legal notices published in the past 10 years. To specifically search for bills, limit the Legal Supplement No. to 3. Follow these steps to search for bills in the Government Gazette.
    Steps to search bills from the government gazette
     
  • e-Gazette List in Hong Kong e-Legislation
    Provides access to the Gazette since 1965. For bill searches, be sure to limit the Legal Supplement No. to 3 (Bills).

The three readings are documented in the Official Record of Proceedings, commonly known as Hansard. This official record captures the proceedings and debates of Legislative Council members regarding bills presented to the Council. Hansard serves as a valuable resource for understanding the background of particular legislation, including the concerns and perspectives of legislators during the bill's debate. You can search Hansard through the following databases:

The Government Gazette is essential for legal research, providing the full text of legislation that has not yet come into force, i.e., is not available on Hong Kong e-Legislation (HKeL).

The Government Gazette consists of the following sections:

  • Main Gazette - statutory notices, for appointments, departmental notices, and public tenders
  • Legal Supplement No. 1 – Ordinances
  • Legal Supplement No. 2 – Regulations
  • Legal Supplement No. 3 - Bills
  • Special Supplement No. 4 - Periodical lists of registered professionals, etc.
  • Special Supplement No. 5 - Draft Bills, Executive Orders, Orders of the State Council, etc.
  • Supplement No. 6 - Public Notices
  • Supplement No. 7 - Authentic Chinese Texts

You can access the Gazette through the following databases:

 

Find Legislation 

Hong Kong e-Legislation (HKeL) is the official database of Hong Kong legislation maintained by the Department of Justice. It offers free online access to current and historical legislation dating back to 30 June 1997. Verified PDF copies with legal status are available for official use.

Click on the  icons for more information and helpful tips! 
Click on  to move to the next page.

You will see a pencil icon for the legislation with pending updates, if any. Click this icon to check the Legal Notice number and access the full text from the Government Gazette. Stpes to access full text of legislation from Gazette for the law with pending update in HKeL

For more tips on using HKeL effectively, check out this video (4:30) and refer to their FAQs.

Westlaw Asia offers access to both current and historical versions of legislation dating back to 30 Jun 1997. Check out the video tutorial below to discover how to effectively find legislation using Westlaw Asia.

Lexis+ Hong Kong provides access to the Laws of Hong Kong currently in force.  You can find the access link under "Recommended Publications" located beneath the search box. 

Alternatively, you can browse legislation by Topics from its homepage:

Steps to browse legislation in Lexis+ Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII, pronounced "H K Lee") is developed and operated by the University of Hong Kong's Department of Computer Science and Faculty of Law. It offers free access to primary legal materials from Hong Kong.

a Link to HKLII

To learn how to locate legislation on HKLII, please refer to the release notes.

Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online is a full-text image database offering past revised editions of Hong Kong laws, with scanned images provided by the University of Hong Kong Libraries. It features seven consolidations from 1890, 1901, 1912, 1923, 1937, 1950, and 1964 (last updated to 1989), making it an excellent resource for historical research.

Homepage of Historical Laws of Hong Kong Online

 

Legislation Commentaries

Provides the full text of legislation along with detailed commentary, including annotations, explanations, interpretations of the ordinance, relevant cases, and the historical background of the legislation. All of this aids in your analysis and research of the legislation.

You can access the Legislation Commentary from the resources below:

Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong (via Lexis+ Hong Kong) - Covers over 210 HK Ordinances

  1. Visit Lexis+ Hong Kong. The access link is located under "Recommended Publications" below the search box. 
  2. Click the "+" sign to browse the annotated ordinance, or use the search box to find specific contents.

Click to show the step-by-step screenshots.

Annotated Legislation of Hong Kong (via Westlaw Asia) - Covers 40 Hong Kong ordinances, including the Basic Law.

  1. Visit Westlaw Asia.
    [Note: Providing a Client Identifier is optional. Just click Continue to access the Westlaw Asia homepage.]
  2. Click on Commentary in the side menu.
  3. Select Hong Kong Titles.
  4. Find Annotated Legislation under "Browse".

Click to show the step-by-step screenshots.