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Birth, death registrations go online

The Immigration Department will launch new electronic services tomorrow for eligible applicants to complete the entire process of birth or death registrations online, without having to visit a registry in person.   According to the Births & Deaths Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2023, which will take effect tomorrow, the statutory time limit for the registration of deaths from natural causes is extended from 24 hours to 14 days.   It also removes the requirement for applicants who need to register births or deaths to attend the registries in person, so as to provide a legal basis for the introduction of electronic services for these kinds of registration.   Under the new electronic services, if either parent of a newborn baby is a Hong Kong permanent resident, the parents may submit an application for a birth registration online within 42 days after the birth of their legitimate child.   They may apply for a birth certificate at the same time and choose to receive it by

Bay area exam creates opportunities

I am delighted to learn that the inaugural Greater Bay Area Legal Professional Examination was held successfully in Hong Kong today. I am truly grateful to the Ministry of Justice for its policy on implementing the Greater Area Bay exam and related training, and its dedicated efforts all along.   The bay area exam, originally scheduled to be held earlier this year, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministry then decided to set up new examination venues in Hong Kong in addition to those in Shenzhen and Zhuhai, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice for the department to co-ordinate with the Hong Kong Examinations & Assessment Authority to handle examination-related work. Such arrangement has brought great convenience to Hong Kong candidates.   Thanks to the ministry’s staunch support all along, the bay area exam was set up in response to the suggestions and aspirations of the Hong Kong legal sector. It will no doubt provide an extensive arena for the sector’s development in the Mainland. Relevant pre-examination legal training was organised by the ministry for candidates sitting the bay area exam. For those who have passed the bay area exam, practical training courses on Mainland laws, to be arranged by the department in co-operation with Mainland organs like the Supreme People’s Court, will be provided to enhance their practical knowledge on Mainland courts’ handling of different areas of civil and commercial matters.   The bay area exam is a liberalisation measure under the Mainland & Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement. After passing the examination and obtaining the relevant practice certificate, Hong Kong legal practitioners, including solicitors and barristers, with accumulated legal practice experience of five years or above, are allowed to provide legal services in the nine Mainland municipalities in the bay area on specified civil and commercial matters (including litigation and non-litigation matters) to which the Mainland laws apply. They will also enjoy the same privileges and under the same obligations as Mainland lawyers. In the nine Mainland municipalities in the bay area, they can be retained by Mainland law firms and partnership associations of Mainland law firms and Hong Kong or Macau law firms, and can become partners of Mainland law firms.   The bay area exam not only offers significant opportunities and practical experience for the Hong Kong legal sector in the bay area, but also provides clients in the bay area (including wholly-owned Hong Kong enterprises) Hong Kong and Mainland legal services and safeguards, which are conducive to the enhancement of legal services and the building of rule of law environment in the bay area, thereby promoting closer integration of legal services in the area to attract more investments. The bay area exam has also laid a foundation on co-operation channels in the future and deepened the exchanges between the legal sectors of both places, thereby achieving the goal of mutual benefits.   If the results of the bay area exam are satisfactory, I hope that the coverage of the exam will be further extended.   Once again I would like to express my wholehearted thanks to the ministry for creating opportunities for the Hong Kong legal profession. I hope that very soon our legal practitioners will have better developments in the Mainland, and at the same time, they will contribute to the building of rule of law for our country.   Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng wrote this article and posted it on her blog on July 31.
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