The 10th edition of Sentencing in Hong Kong is a vital reference tool for judicial officers, practitioners and academics alike. The Appendix summarises latest judgments and indicates maximum penalties, and fresh topics have been added, including national security and quarantine controls. Whereas the latest aggravating and mitigating factors are included, consideration is also given to assistance to the authorities, the difference between guidelines and tariffs, the ambit of a court’s duty to provide reasons for sentence, the ordering of multiple retrials, and the role of counsel in the sentencing process. The latest narcotics guidelines are indicated, together with the enhanced punishments for employing persons not lawfully employable. Arising out of the public disorder in 2019-20, numerous offenders have been sentenced for a variety of crimes, including arson, riot and violence against police officers, and the courts have identified the relevant principles of punishment, and these are now explained. The duty of the courts to protect society and uphold the rule of law have been recurrent sentencing themes, as also has equality before the law. New chapters on the national security law and rehabilitation centres have been added, and this edition is now the most comprehensive in the series. Where instructive, developments in other jurisdictions are also referenced, and this provides a comparative dimension. The text is current as of 1 May 2022.
Patrick WS Cheung is a barrister-at-law, with a wide experience of public prosecutions in the Department of Justice. He served as Head of the Vulnerable Witness Team, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Disclosure, and Prosecution Policy Co-ordinator on Policy and Research (Crime). Mr Cheung sat on the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, and the Working Group on Combating Violence. He is the author of Sentencing Policy, and has contributed to Halsbury’s Laws of Hong Kong and The Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong. Mr Cheung has served as Associate Editor of Hong Kong Cases, Contributing Editor of Archbold Hong Kong and Consultant Editor of Hong Kong Law Reports and Digest. In 2010, he was awarded the Long and Meritorious Service Certificate, for services to government.
I Grenville Cross GBS, SC is the Vice Chairman (Senate) of the International Association of Prosecutors, and chairs the Association’s Standing Committee on Prosecutors in Difficulty. A career prosecutor, he served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 1997 to 2009. Mr Cross was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1974, and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1990, becoming Senior Counsel in 1997. He is Honorary Professor of Law, University of Hong Kong, Visiting Professor of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Adjunct Professor of Law, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, and Visiting Professor of Law, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan. Mr Cross is the Sentencing Editor of Hong Kong Cases and of Archbold Hong Kong. In 2010, he was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star, and, in 2021, the Gold Bauhinia Star.