4 Courts


Hong Kong courts need to improve juror education and procedures to ensure that jurors do not use the internet for their own research during trials, Doreen Weisenhaus told The South China Morning Post in a July 25, 2016 article. The Department of Justice recently decided not to press charges against jurors in a criminal trial who allegedly breached contempt of court rules by collecting outside information from the internet, after Hong...

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May 24, 2016 (South China Morning Post) — Op-ed by Cliff Buddle — Whenever central government officials comment on Hong Kong’s judiciary, they court controversy. State leader Zhang Dejiang’s (張德江) remarks about the rule of law during his brief visit to the city last week were no exception. The speeches he made in Hong Kong were generally well received and moderate in tone. Zhang, chairman of the National People’s Congress,...

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May 13, 2016 (South China Morning Post) — The Department of Justice has warned it will prosecute media outlets that run reports of bail negotiations and defendants’ criminal records, despite dropping charges against two local Chinese papers over an alleged contravention. It also made clear in a statement the importance of banning such reports to prevent prejudicing members of public who could be potential jurors. This came after...

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December 1, 2015 (Hong Kong Free Press) — The High Court has made further rulings on the injunction in force to prevent more leaks of the discussions at a crucial University of Hong Kong (HKU) Council meeting. The court allowed the injunction to continue until the trial, and rejected the applications by Apple Daily and Undergrad editor-in-chief Marcus Lau Yee-ching to join the court proceedings as interested parties. Only the...

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September 25, 2015 (RTHK) — Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma has highlighted the importance of an independent judiciary, and the need to maintain the rule of law in Hong Kong, during a high-profile ceremony to mark the opening of the new Court of Final Appeal Building. Ma said one of the principal themes of the Basic Law is the maintenance and continuation of institutions such as the rule of law, that he said “provides the social...

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Sept 16, 2015 (RTHK) — The Court of First Instance has fined Apple Daily and Sharp Daily newspapers, as well as two of their former chief editors, for contempt of court over the publication of an interview with a man who was awaiting trial for murdering his parents. Apple Daily’s former chief editor, Cheung Kim-hung, was fined HK$90,000 while the newspaper itself was fined HK$250,000. The now-defunct Sharp Daily and its...

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