Employees 1,084 Website www.doj.gov.hk | Annual budget 949.2m HKD | |
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Headquarters G/F, Main Wing,
6/F, Main and East Wing,
Justice Place, 18 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong
5-7/F, High Block, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong Agency executive Rimsky Yuen, SC, JP, Secretary for Justice | ||
The Department of Justice (Chinese: 律政司) is the department responsible for the laws of Hong Kong headed by the Secretary for Justice. Before 1997, the names of the department and the position was the Legal Department (律政署) and Attorney General (律政司) respectively. The Department of Justice’s main value is the rule of law. This law is the law that has brought Hong Kong the success of being known as the world’s international financial centre. Their leading principle consists of the quote “One country, Two Systems”. The Department of Justice is very important in the legal system in many ways. One being that they give legal advice to other departments in the government system. “drafts government bills, makes prosecution decisions, and promotes the rule of law”. It is important to note that the main goal of the Department is to ensure that Hong Kong’s status as the main centre for legal services goes up, and is enhanced.
Contents
Organisation
National Law
Under Article 18 of Basic Law, numerous nation laws of China apply in Hong Kong. Under Article 158 of Basic Law, the clarification of term of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is to be followed by the courts of Hong Kong in operating the related clause.
Basic Law
The main principle of basic law is “one country, two system”. Although China took back Hong Kong in 1997, the previous law in force in Hong Kong(laws of equity, ordinances, subordinate, subordinate legislation, common law and customary law) still remain unchanged for 50 years. Except some law related to foreign affairs and defense, nation law of China will not apply on Hong Kong.
International law
There are more than 200 treaties and agreement in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong domestic law does not create the treaty unless the legislation gives force. However, it affects the common law. The rapid growth of international laws may become immersed into the common law.
Bilateral agreements
Preamble
The Department of Justice’s main function is to help the government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region through providing legal services and advice. This department, run by the Secretary for Justice, contains the Secretary for Justice’s office, which is split into six differnent sections: 1. Administration and development division 2.legal policy division 3. prosecutions division 4.civil division 5. law drafting division 6. international law division
Mission
In order to provide the best service available to their clients, the department has promised to do their best and maintain their quality of work and ethics, follow all appropriate rules that are required by legal professions of higher power, and make sure to notify their clients the possible implications and requirements in any course of action.
Performance Standards and Targets
In general, they try to respond to correspondences that do not need a legal opinion within 10 days. If there is no response within that time frame, an interim reply will be sent out. As well, to in order to recognise a letter of complaint, it must be sent no later than 10 days and they must provide a justifiable reply within 30 days. For more complicated cases. they require a longer processing time.
Effective Monitoring
The department of Justice makes sure to do everything to the best of their ability. The quality of their work and effort will constantly be monitored by the senior management in order to improve their efforts from time to time
The User’s Role
The department of Justice is open to comments and suggestions and feedback to how they are doing their services. If one wishes to provide some input, their public number is 2867 2198.