The Law Draftsman () is the head of the Law Drafting Division () of the Department of Justice in Hong Kong, which is responsible for drafting all primary and secondary legislation proposed by the government. The law draftsman is one of six Law Officers in the government.
History The first mention of a Legal Draftsman in statute was in the Legal Officers Ordinance 1950, which merged the offices of the Attorney General, Crown Solicitor, and other legal officers into a single Legal Department. The Legal Draftsman was included in the definition of "Legal Officer", which also included the Attorney General, Solicitor General, Crown Solicitor, and Crown Counsel.
The present title of Law Draftsman only appeared in 1964, when the Legal Officers Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule) Order 1964 was enacted on 20 February 1964 to insert the position of Law Draftsman, among others, into the schedule of the ordinance.
Role The law draftsman is the head of the Law Drafting Division and the Keeper of the Statute Book. Ranked at Directorate (Legal) Pay Scale point 6, which is equivalent to the head of a subordinate department, the Law Draftsman oversees three sub-divisions, each headed by a Deputy Law Draftsman ranked at DL5. The Law Draftsman often appears before the Legislative Council to speak on matters related to legislation, and is an ex-officio member of the Law Reform Commission. The Law Draftsman also served as the Counsel to the Legislature until 1995, when the Standing Orders of the Legislative Council were amended to name the Legal Adviser of the Legislative Council Secretariat as counsel instead.
At least three Law Draftsmen, including Eamonn Moran, Paul Wan and Theresa Johnson, were recruited from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel in Australia.
The Law Drafting Division The division also oversees the operation of Hong Kong e-Legislation, which is Hong Kong's official online legislation database.
List of Law Draftsmen +No.Law DraftsmanTerm startTerm endTerm length -Edward Sainsbury (acting)~1950Henrique Alberto de Barros BotelhoDecember 1960December 1966J.F. McKeon2 October 1967May 1972Gerald Paul Nazareth23 May 19798 August 1984James O'GradyNovember 198420 November 1990James Kerr Findlay19901994Tony Yen Yuen-ho199425 March 2007 -Gilbert Mo Sik-keung (acting)25 March 200725 June 2007 -Nilmini Dissanayake (acting)25 June 200725 September 2007Edward Patrick Aquinas MoranJanuary 20081 July 2012 -Gilbert Mo Sik-keung (acting)1 July 20121 October 2012Paul Wan How-leungOctober 2012October 2015Theresa Ann Johnson4 January 20163 January 20204 years -Fanny Ip Fung-king (acting)4 January 202015 March 2021Michael Lam Siu-chung16 March 2021Incumbent
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