9.1

---

Page 188

Outline of the legal environment in Hong Kong

9.1.1 The constitutional structure of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Its legal system is very much embedded within the legal system of Mainland China1 and Hong Kong comes directly under the Central People’s Government. Nonetheless, China has granted Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy through the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (the Basic Law).2 The Basic Law is a quasi-constitutional document (sometimes described as a ‘mini-constitution’) and derives its authority from Article 31 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which empowers the Chinese State to establish Special Administrative Regions when necessary.