Mapping Parliamentary Law and Practice in Hong Kong

Abstract

Legislative supremacy, parliamentary accountability, and parliamentary privilege are the cornerstones of the lex et consuetudo parliamenti (law and custom of Parliament) in the United Kingdom. This article systematically examines, from the standpoint of comparative constitutional law, how a variant of this mainstay of British constitutionalism continues to thrive in the law books and case law of Hong Kong, notwithstanding the resumption of sovereignty by the People’s Republic of China. It shows how parliamentary law in general and the doctrine of legislative supremacy in particular reinforce, rather than defeat, the pre-eminence of the Chief Executive in Council within the legislative process. Incidentally, it reveals that the full potential of Hong Kong’s British-descended lex et consuetudo parliamenti in promoting effective lawmaking remains largely untapped in spite of the persistent gridlocks and tensions between the Legislative Council and the government since 1995.