Court of First Instance rules on the quorum of the Legislative Council

On 12 June 2019, the Court of First Instance handed down its judgment in 郭卓堅 v. 立法會主席及各立法會建制派議員(39人) [2019] HKCFI 1482, regarding the quorum of the Committee of the Whole Council of the Legislative Council.

Article 75(1) of the Basic Law provides that the quorum for the meeting of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be not less than one half of all its members.

The Court held that the quorum requirement stipulated in Article 75(1) of the Basic Law is not applicable to a meeting of a committee of the whole Council in that the Article refer only to a meeting of the Legislative Council as a full body sitting in plenary session. Distinguishing the two meant that the decision to reduce the quorum of the committee of the Whole Council on 15 December 2017 was therefore valid and constitutional.

Ernest CY Ng acted for the Applicant (with Mr. Jeffrey Tam), instructed by Ho, Tse, Wai & Partners.

The full judgment is available here.