Jonathan Chung Wa Ho and Justin Chan Wan on The Anatomy of the Six-Step Sentencing Approach for Drug Trafficking (HKJLS)

"The Anatomy of the Six-Step Sentencing Approach for Drug Trafficking: Consolidating Herry Lane Yusuph, Lee Ming Ho, and Raman Kapusamy"
Jonathan Chung Wa Ho and Justin Chan Wan (BSocSc (Government and Laws) and LLB)
Hong Kong Journal of Legal Studies (Volume 18, 2024), pp. 31 - 64

Abstract: The recent cases of HKSAR v Lee Ming Ho and HKSAR v Raman Kapusamy contribute crucial clarity to the sixstep sentencing approach formulated in HKSAR v Herry Jane Yusuph. This trio of trafficking cases chart a course for Hong Kong’s move away from a prescriptive arithmetical drug sentencing policy, and towards a more discretionary, structured and individualised assessment of culpability. By offering a consolidation of these three cases, we analyse the core rationale adopted by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal, and the potential extension of

such to subsequent cases when the six-step approach operates in tandem with pre-existing sentencing principles. We focus our analysis on the delineation between ‘role and culpability’ and ‘aggravating factors’, the availability of mitigating factors, and the overall proportionality assessment required by the principle of totality.