The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Legislative Council Library

Brief history

The Legislative Council

The Legislative Council is constituted by election and is composed of permanent residents of Hong Kong, with the proportion of Members who are not of Chinese nationality or who have the right of abode in foreign countries not exceeding 20 percent of the total membership of the Council. The first Legislative Council of the HKSAR has 60 Members, with 20 Members returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections (the voting system being the list system of proportional representation), 30 Members returned by functional constituencies (depending on the constituencies, the voting system being the preferential elimination system of voting, or "first past the post"), and 10 Members returned by an Election Committee comprising 800 elected representatives of the community (the voting system being "first past the post"). The President of the Council is elected by and from among Members of the Council.

The Council normally meets every Wednesday afternoon from October to July, with breaks during major public holidays. Members carry out their work mainly through a system of committees. Government officials attend meetings of the Council and its committees to present legislative proposals, explain policies and answer questions from Members. The Chief Executive also attends special Council meetings to brief Members on policy issues and to answer questions from them. All Council and committee meetings are open to the public. Only in special circumstances are committee meetings held in camera.

During the session from July 1998 to July 1999, the Council held 35 meetings. A total of 123 bills were introduced, 66 bills passed and 67 motion debates held. Members raised 791 questions, which were followed up by 1,289 supplementary questions.

The functions of the Legislative Council are set out in the Basic Law of the HKSAR. In general, they are the enactment of legislation, control of public expenditure and monitoring of Government work. Unprecedented in the legislative history of Hong Kong, the Legislative Council is also given the power to endorse the appointment and removal of judges of the Court of Final Appeal and the Chief Judge of the High Court, as well as the power to impeach the Chief Executive.

The Basic Law also provides checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of the HKSAR government. While the Government of the HKSAR has the powers and functions to formulate and implement policies, to draw up and introduce budgets and legislative proposals, the power to approve budgets and enact laws rests with the Legislative Council. The Government of the HKSAR is also accountable to the Council, but if the Chief Executive considers that a bill passed by the Legislative Council is not compatible with the overall interests of the HKSAR, he may return it to the Legislative Council within three months for reconsideration. If the Legislative Council passes the original bill again by not less than a two-thirds majority of all the Members, the Chief Executive must sign and promulgate it within one month. If he still refuses to sign the bill passed the second time by the Legislative Council, or the Legislative Council refuses to pass a budget or any other important bill introduced by the government, and if consensus cannot be reached, the Chief Executive may dissolve the Legislative Council. If the new Legislative Council formed after such dissolution again passes the original bill in dispute by a two-thirds majority of all the Members, the Chief Executive must sign it or resign.

The extent of the autonomy of the HKSAR in making its own laws is also described in the Basic Law. Laws enacted by the Legislative Council must be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China for the record. If the Standing Committee, after consulting its Committee for the Basic Law of the HKSAR, considers that any such law is not in conformity with the provisions of the Basic Law regarding the affairs within the responsibility of the Central Authorities or regarding the relationship between the Central Authorities and the HKSAR, the Standing Committee may return the law in question but shall not amend it. Any law returned shall immediately be invalidated, but the invalidation shall have no retrospective effect.

Setting of the Library

The Library has an inter-library loan relationship with all major libraries in Hong Kong, including all public libraries and university libraries. The Library is a member of IFLA.

Services and product

Library services are provided for Members, their assistants and Secretariat staff: access to library collections, reading room facilities, reference service and inter-library loans. Members of the public may read in the Library records, papers and reports of Legislative Council and committee meetings, reference materials, Members' Claims for Reimbursement of Operating Expenses, and the Register of Members' Interests. The Library is staffed by two professional Librarians and two clerical staff.

Library collections and other resources

To enable Library users to search news reports about the Legislative Council and its activities, the Library subscribes to the first bilingual press cuttings database in Hong Kong, which covers more than 10 newspapers and which has made a customized search design for the Council. Each Member has an individual folder to facilitate the robot to update press cuttings every morning. The archive of press cuttings goes back to September 1998. Feedback has been positive.

The Research and Library Services Division moved to its new premises in a commercial building in July 1997. It has a purpose-designed setting and occupies about 250 square metres, more than double the area in the old premises. It is within 10 minutes walking distance from the Legislative Council Building. There are reading rooms for Members and the public and three networked computers for access to the Internet and CD-ROM databases.

Developments in Automation

With the new system, bilingual search and retrieval of Council and committee papers and records can be carried out at 160 networked stations in the Legislative Council Secretariat as well as in Members' local offices. The project costs about US$1.3 million and full operation is expected in January 2000.