Preparation: Consulting Legal Research Guides
Hong Kong Law Reform Commission was created in 1980. Ever since it was established, it has published 58 reports in many different areas, the full text of which are available at its official website. Opinions from HK Law Reform Commission is purely advisory, but it can be helpful especially with legal research on law reform related issues. Just recently, a practitioner from Hong Kong published an article, Reforming Law Reform, criticizing the current regime of Hong Kong Law Reform in Hong Kong Lawyer. Hong Kong Law Reform Commission then timely filed a response in the same journal.
Hong Kong Legal Profession is governed by Legal Practitioners Ordinance (30 June 2005) L.N. 60 of 2005. Following British model, Hong Kong private legal profession is divided into Solicitors and Barristers. Solicitors are regulated by Law Society of Hong Kong and Barristers are regulated by Hong Kong Bar Association. (There was a very short time period that the two branches were "fused" under the Amalgamation Ordinance No 12 of 1858, which was officially obselete in 1864 by Ordinance No. 13 of 1862. See Norton-Kyshe, James William, The History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong (1971)).
Article 92 of the Basic Law states that judges in Hong Kong SAR shall be appointed by Chief Executive upon recommendation from Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission and may be recruited from other common law jurisdictions. This principle was affirmed by the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the question of Hong Kong in 2003. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Library has compiled a list of links related to the the judicial appointment process worldwide which includes links to a very thorough comparative study conducted by Hong Kong Legislative Council on the process of judges appointment of Hong Kong and some other major common law jurisdictions. However, the study may be a bit out of date, since it was written in 2001.
For discussions of other legal personnels in Hong Kong, see Wesley-Smith, Peter, An Introduction to the Hong Kong Legal System, 95-111 (3rd ed. 1998).
The following tools are helpful for you to keep updated with Hong Kong Legal Development:
Legal News: Lexis and Westlaw Legal News Databases; LexisNexis Academic Legal News (campus-wide access); Hong Kong Lawyer
Blogs: Lexis' Hong Kong Legal Community Blog; West's Hong Kong Legal Network Blog; Hong Kong Media Law Blog; Hong Kong Land Law Blog; ABA Hong Kong Resources
