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Young, Simon N.M. --- "Civil Forfeiture for Hong Kong: Issues and Prospects" [2009] ELECD 226; in Young, N.M. Simon (ed), "Civil Forfeiture of Criminal Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Civil Forfeiture of Criminal Property

Editor(s): Young, N.M. Simon

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847208262

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Civil Forfeiture for Hong Kong: Issues and Prospects

Author(s): Young, Simon N.M.

Number of pages: 43

Extract:

10. Civil forfeiture for Hong Kong:
issues and prospects
Simon N.M. Young*

INTRODUCTION
While under British rule, Hong Kong enacted confiscation laws to ensure that
those who committed serious offences would not be allowed to enjoy the fruits
of their criminal wrongdoing. The laws were passed in two separate legislative
exercises beginning in 1989, when the proceeds of drug trafficking were
targeted, and followed in 1994, when serious crimes more generally were
targeted. Both laws enabled law enforcement and prosecutors to obtain judi-
cial orders to restrain and confiscate assets as part of a criminal case. These
criminal confiscation laws were based on those which then existed in the
United Kingdom. The motivations for these laws, however, were specific to
the problems with dangerous drugs, triad societies, and organized criminal
activities that afflicted Hong Kong at the time.1
In the first decade of being a special administrative region of China, Hong
Kong has seen very little development in its laws and policies governing the
confiscation of criminal assets. With the exceptions of mutual legal assistance
legislation enacted in 1997 and anti-terrorist financing laws enacted in
2002­2004, Hong Kong has fallen behind most advanced societies in devel-


* The work described in this chapter was fully supported by a grant from the
Central Policy Unit of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region (hereinafter HKSAR), China (Project No. HKU 7023-PPR-20051). I would
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