Basis of the legal system

Notes and definition

The legal system is distinct from that of the mainland of China. Current legislation is on the electronic Hong Kong e-Legislation site.

Other figures in this group (legal)

Figures in the same group are not necessarily additive — check the basis note above first. Legal system.

Other figures from the same official source

These figures come from the same registered document: “The legal system of Hong Kong” (Department of Justice). Being in one document does not make them additive.

Verified questions that cite this figure

• Is Hong Kong a country?

  No. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China, not a country — but the Basic Law gives it its own currency, customs territory, legal system and immigration regime, so the “special” is substantive.

• How is Hong Kong different from mainland China?

  Same sovereignty, different systems. Hong Kong keeps the common law, its own currency, a separate customs territory and its own immigration regime — the operational meaning of “one country, two systems”.

• How many articles does the Hong Kong National Security Law contain?

  The Hong Kong National Security Law has 66 articles in six chapters and covers four categories of offences: secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with foreign or external forces.

• Does Hong Kong still have the death penalty?

  No. Capital punishment has been abolished in Hong Kong; the maximum penalty for murder and similar offences is life imprisonment, and the last execution took place in the 1960s.

• What does SAR mean, and what kind of “region” is Hong Kong?

  SAR stands for Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China — a local administrative region directly under the Central People’s Government.

• How is the Chief Executive chosen?

  The Chief Executive is returned by the Election Committee under the procedure in Annex I of the Basic Law, and is then appointed by the Central People’s Government — the local election is only half of the process.

• Is Hong Kong safe?

  On official figures, Hong Kong’s crime rates are low: about 118 violent crimes and about 1,189 total reported crimes per 100,000 people.

• Is Hong Kong’s legal system civil law or common law? What is the role of the Basic Law?

  Hong Kong follows the common law tradition, supplemented by statutes, with an independent judiciary. The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is the constitutional document that defines Hong Kong’s autonomous powers, the fundamental rights and duties of residents, and the relationship between the Central Authorities and the HKSAR.

• How is Hong Kong governed? How are the executive, legislature and judiciary structured?

  The HKSAR’s political structure follows the Basic Law: the Chief Executive is the head of the executive and leads the HKSAR Government; the Legislative Council enacts laws, approves public expenditure and monitors the administration; courts at all levels exercise judicial power independently. The three branches separate powers and check one another.

• How many grades and ranks do civil servants have, and which authority issues the Master Pay Scale?

  Civil-service grades and pay are administered by the Civil Service Bureau, which issues the Master Pay Scale and related pay scales each year and sets out the entry requirements and establishment of each grade. The government also publishes the total number of civil servants each year.

• What is the current fixed-penalty fine for illegal parking, and how many times has it increased over the years?

  The fixed-penalty fine for illegal parking is set by statute and adjusted through statutory procedures, with past increases gazetted. The actual amounts, licence fees and the historical trajectory of fixed-penalty fines are official statutory data cited here per official announcements.

• Why doesn’t the site cover live party dynamics, legislative debates or commentary on policy controversies?

  Live politics, party dynamics, legislative debates and policy controversies involve competing viewpoints and real-time change without unified official hard data. The site records only government-press-release headlines and gazetted/LegCo official texts, so this area is left blank.

• How are government charges categorised, and which departments set water, electricity and public-hospital fees?

  Government charges fall into categories by department and statute: water charges are set by the Water Supplies Department, electricity tariffs by the two power companies under regulation, and public-hospital fees by the Hospital Authority under government policy — each with official schedules and adjustment records.

• Who owns Hong Kong now?

  Since 1 July 1997 Hong Kong has been the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Sovereignty rests with China, but under the Basic Law it enjoys a high degree of autonomy, an independent judiciary and the common law.

• Does Hong Kong have a "right to one’s own image"?

  Hong Kong has no standalone statutory "right to one’s own image". Protection of a person’s likeness falls mainly under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance and privacy case law; collecting or using personal data without consent can amount to a privacy breach.

• At what age can a child sit in the front seat in Hong Kong?

  Hong Kong has no single minimum age for the front seat as such, but under the Road Traffic (Safety Equipment) Regulations (Cap. 374F): a child under three in a private car’s front seat must use an approved child seat; and from 1 November 2025 any child under eight and under 1.35 m tall must use a suitable child restraint device in front or rear seats.

（已核對問題頁目前只有中文版；上面嘅英文標題同答案本身係資料檔嘅官方英文欄位。）

How to cite this figure

Hong Kong Story, “Basis of the legal system”, https://hongkongstory.org/en/facts/legal-basis, data as at 1997-07-01 (retrieved ＿).

中文：香港紀事館，〈法律制度基礎〉，https://hongkongstory.org/facts/legal-basis，資料時點 1997-07-01（查閱日期 ＿）。

Machine-readable: /api/v1/facts.json (id = legal-basis) · OpenAPI 3.1 ·/llms.txt

Registered source

• The legal system of Hong Kong

  Department of Justice

  The official document carries no registered publication date, so only the retrieval date 2026-09-05 is given — no publication year is invented.

This site is a secondary compilation: the official text prevails. If the figure above differs from the official document, the official document is correct.