Friday, January 3, 2025

New Book: Archbold Hong Kong 2025 (Sweet & Maxwell)

ARCHBOLD HONG KONG 2025
Editor-in-Chief: The Hon Mr Justice Bokhary
General Editor: Professor Simon Young
Sweet & Maxwell
October 2024

Preface by the General Editor

The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (Ord. No. 6 of 2024) (“SNSO”) entered into force on 23 March 2024, only 15 days after the bill was read the first time in the Legislative Council. The SNSO adds 121 new provisions to our criminal law and amends/repeals 94 provisions across 28 Ordinances, including subsidiary legislation. Naturally, the changes brought about by the SNSO figure prominently in some of the chapters in this year’s volume, especially in Chapter 26 (National Security). Going forwards, legal updates in national security law will be captured in Chapter 26, except for those relating to sentencing (Chapter 5), proceeds of crime and production orders (Chapter 41), and other police powers (Chapter 15), which will be captured in the respective chapters indicated. I am grateful to the contributing editors of these and other chapters for their efforts in updating Archbold Hong Kong to reflect these new changes.

The SNSO fulfils the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s duty to enact laws on its own to prohibit seven types of national security threats, as mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“NSL”) of June 2020 covered two of those prohibitions (i.e. secession and subversion) and added new crimes to address terrorist activities and collusion with a foreign country or external element. The SNSO completes the national security ecosystem by modernising previous offences (e.g. treason, misprision of treason, unlawful drilling, incitement to mutiny or disaffection, sedition, and offences in connection with state secrets and espionage), adding new ones (e.g. insurrection, sabotage, acts in relation to computers and electronic systems, external interference, disclosing a national security investigation, harassing persons handling national security cases/work), and conferring new executive powers to prohibit organisations endangering national security.

Perhaps the most controversial aspects of the SNSO are the departures from procedural norms that apply to other offences (e.g. extended detention of arrested person, restricted access to legal representative, movement restriction orders of persons on bail, disregarding 8-day rule on remand, translation of statements and exhibits only by order of magistrate, dispensing with preliminary inquiry, no section 16 discharge, anonymity measures). Those convicted of offences endangering national security cannot have a sentence of imprisonment suspended (i.e. they are excepted offences) and face presumptions against remission and early release. Finally, there are new measures aimed at facilitating the return of specified “absconders” who are not in Hong Kong.

Unlike the NSL, the offences and measures in the SNSO may be judicially reviewed for compatibility with the Basic Law and Hong Kong Bill of Rights. The “Principles” of the SNSO states that “human rights are to be respected and protected” and the rights and freedoms “enjoyed under the Basic Law, the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as applied to the HKSAR, are to be protected in accordance with the law” (s.2(b)). The presumption of innocence and other legal rights in the criminal process are also expressly mentioned in the statement of Principles (s.2(c)). No doubt cases in the future will raise issues as to the proportionality of the new rules and decisions executed under those rules. For now, the number of notable national security law judgments can still be listed on less than two pages (see list below).

I wish to express my deep appreciation for the hard work of contributing editors in providing updates throughout the year for the supplements and main work, for the continuous support of the Sentencing Editor and Editor-in-Chief, for the diligent research done by my student editors (Oscar Wong, Jonathan Ho, and Cover Lai), and for overall management by Thomson Reuters colleagues, especially Wing Yan Ng.

Professor Simon NM Young
Ian Davies Professor in Ethics
Parkside Chambers
18 August 2024


List of Notable National Security Law Judgments

HKSAR v Tam Tak Chi [2024] HKCFA 25 (CO 9(1), legal certainty and proportionality of previous sedition offence)

HKSAR v Lui Sai Yu (2023) 26 HKCFAR 332, [2023] HKCFA 26 (NSL 33, sentencing bands, mitigating factors)

Secretary for Justice v Timothy Wynn Owen KC (2022) 25 HKCFAR 288, [2022] HKCFA 23 (NSL 3, courts' duty to safeguard national security and proper adjudication)

HKSAR v Ng Hau Yi Sidney (2021) 24 HKCFAR 417, [2021] HKCFA 42 (NSL 42(2) applies to Crimes Ord ss.9-10)

HKSAR v Lai Chee Ying  (2021) 24 HKCFAR 33, [2021] HKCFA 3 (NSL 42(2), NSL not subject to constitutional review, grounds for granting bail)


HKSAR v Tam Tak Chi [2024] 2 HKLRD 565, [2024] HKCA 231 (Crimes Ord ss.9-10 sedition, jurisdiction under NSL 41(3), elements of offence, constitutional challenge)

Lai Chee Ying v Commissioner of Police [2022] 5 HKLRD 205, [2022] HKCA 1574 (NSL Implementation Rules (“IR”) Sch.1, journalistic materials)

HKSAR v Ma Chun Man [2022] 5 HKLRD 246, [2022] HKCA 1151 (NSL 21, sentencing, "serious nature")

Tong Ying Kit v Secretary for Justice [2021] 3 HKLRD 350, [2021] HKCA 912 (NSL 46(1) SJ certificate for non-jury trial, unamenable to constitutional review)

HKSAR v Ng Gordon Ching Hang [2024] HKCFI 1468 (NSL 22(3), elements of subversion, "unlawful means")

HKSAR v Chow Hang Tung [2024] HKCFI 553 (failing to comply with IR Sch.5 notice)

HKSAR v Kwok Man-hei [2024] HKCFI 280 (sentencing of Returning Valiant, conspiracy to commit terrorist activities)

Lai Chee Ying v The Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR [2023] HKCFI 1382 (NSL 12, 14, Committee decision not amenable to judicial review)


Lai Chee Ying v Secretary for Justice [2023] 3 HKLRD 275, [2023] HKCFI 1382 (NSL 14, 47, NPCSC Interpretation, no jurisdiction over National Security Committee, certification against overseas lawyers)

Chow Hang Tung v Secretary for Justice [2022] 4 HKLRD 183, [2022] HKCFI 2225 (Magistrates Ord s.87A(2), lifting of reporting restrictions in committal for NSL charges)


HKSAR v Leung Kam Wai [2021] HKCFI 3214 (IR Sch.5, NSL 42(2) bail grounds apply to scheduled offences)

Lai Chee Ying v Secretary for Security [2021] 4 HKLRD 695, [2021] HKCFI 2804 (IR Sch.3, dealing with "specified property" includes exercising shareholder voting rights)

HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit [2021] 5 HKC 100, [2021] HKCFI 2239 (NSL 20-21, 24, sentencing, 9 years imprisonment)

HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit [2021] 5 HKC 100, [2021] HKCFI 2200 (NSL 20–21, 24, elements of secession and terrorism, assessment on protest slogan )



HKSAR v Tong Ying Kit [2021] 3 HKLRD 87, [2021] HKCFI 1644 (Criminal Procedure Ord s.23(1), late addition of alternative non-NSL charge, jurisdiction of designated judge)



HKSAR v Lai Chee Ying [2021] HKCFI 448 (bail application after CFA decision)


Tong Ying Kit v HKSAR [2020] 4 HKLRD 382, [2020] HKCFI 2133 (NSL 42(2),  lawful authority for refusal of bail, habeas corpus refused)

HKSAR v Cheung King Sang Kinson [2023] HKDC 1463 (sentencing for advocating terrorism)

HKSAR v Wong Denis Tak Keung [2023] HKDC 168 (sentencing for incitement to subversion)

HKSAR v Lai Man-ling [2022] HKDC 1004 (sentencing in speech therapists’ sedition case)

HKSAR v Lai Man-ling [2022] HKDC 981 (verdict in speech therapists’ sedition case)

HKSAR v Wan Yiu Sing Edmund [2022] HKDC 958 (sentencing for conspiracy to do acts with seditious intention)
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