Answers
General
- What does the Bilingual Laws Information System (BLIS) contain?
BLIS contains -
- the statute laws of Hong Kong in English and
Chinese (over 680 principal Ordinances and 1300
items of subsidiary legislation) (the "Laws");
- constitutional instruments and other relevant documents,
including the constitution of the PRC, the Sino-British
Joint Declaration, the Basic Law of the HKSAR and
the PRC national laws that apply in the HKSAR;
- the English-Chinese Glossary of Legal Terms
and the Chinese-English Glossary of Legal Terms;
- a
Chinese Subject Index of Ordinances and an
English
Subject Index of Ordinances
For details, please refer to the "What
is BLIS" page.
- Where can I find Bills?
You may find Bills in the
eGazette website and the website of the
Legislative
Council.
- Where can I find amendment legislation?
You may find amendment legislation (i.e., Ordinances
and subsidiary legislation making amendments to existing
legislation) in the
eGazette website.
Please note that though the amendments made by amendment
legislation will be incorporated in the text of the
existing legislation in BLIS after the amendments come
into operation, amendment legislation will not be kept
in BLIS.
- Is the BLIS version of the Laws the same
as the Loose-leaf edition?
BLIS is available
on the Internet free of charge and is updated within
an average of three weeks after a new law or an amendment
to existing laws has come into operation. It presents
a more accessible and up-to-date version of the Laws
when compared with the Loose-leaf edition of the Laws
of Hong Kong which is updated once every 4 to 6 months.
You should however be wary that that the version of the Laws contained in BLIS does not have legal
status. Please refer to the information in the "Status of Legislation in BLIS" page under "Important Notices".
- How up-to-date are the Laws in the system?
The Laws in the system are up-to-date as at today¡¦s date, except provisions against which a pencil edit mark ( ) has been inserted. The mark alerts users that an amendment has been made to the affected provision, and the amendment has come into operation but has yet to be incorporated in the text of that provision. A provision that does not have a pencil edit mark () inserted against its heading is up-to-date.
New laws or amendments to existing Laws are incorporated
into the system within an average of three weeks after
the new laws or amendments have come into operation.
For further details, please refer to the explanations
on [Alert to amendments already in operation pending
updating] and [Legislation not yet in operation] in
the "What is BLIS"
document.
- Can I find the past versions of the Laws?
As explained in the "What
is BLIS" document, the earliest version of the Laws
captured in BLIS is the Laws as in force on 30 June
1997. If a provision of an existing Ordinance or subsidiary
legislation is amended (whether in the form of textual
amendment or repeal) after 30 June 1997, the provision
as amended will be stored in a separate document file
as a new version bearing a different "Version Date"
(which is the commencement date of the amendment). All
past versions are still being kept in the BLIS database
and are retrievable.
To search for different versions of a particular provision,
please click the [Current & Past] button under "Select
Version" at the Selection Menu under the Individual
Section Mode and then click the [Enter] button. A provision with past and current
versions has a triangular twistie ( )
next to its heading. All the versions with their respective version dates will be displayed after clicking the twistie ().
- I don't know how to use the system. What
should I do?
You may refer to the "How
to use BLIS" page. The document contains useful
tips on the use of the system. Any questions on the
use of BLIS can also be sent to the Department of Justice
by e-mail to blis@doj.gov.hk
or fax at (852) 2536 8506.
- Can I seek legal advice from you?
No, we are not in a position to offer legal advice to
individual members of the public or private companies.
The general duty of the Department of Justice is to
provide internal legal services to other government
departments and bureaux. If necessary, you may consider
seeking professional advice from a legal practitioner.
- Can I download and reproduce the Laws from BLIS?
Please refer to the "Copyright and Related Matters" page under "Important Notices" which contains
the Government's policy on the reproduction of the Laws of Hong Kong and related issues.
- Can I view and search the Chinese text of legislation in BLIS?
If your computer can support Chinese, such as by installation
of Windows Vista or Windows XP, you may
click the [ ] or
[ ] icon
to access the Chinese homepage of BLIS and read the text of laws in traditional or simplified
Chinese characters respectively.
- What software was used to develop the system?
Lotus Domino Server R8
- If I obtain a blank screen when accessing
the website, what should I do?
Try the "View" -> "Refresh" function of your web browser.
Also, check to ensure that the "Encoding" (in Internet
Explorer) or "Character encoding" (in Firefox)
under "View" has been set correctly. Then try to access
the website again. If it still fails, you may need to
consult your computer technician or Internet service
provider.
- Where can I buy a hard copy of an Ordinance
or subsidiary legislation?
You may do so through the following channels:
- the online
Government Bookstore;
- by phone ( 2537 1910 ) to the Publications Sales
Unit of the Information Services Department (ISD);
- by fax ( 2523 7195 ) or online after downloading
the order form from the
ISD website;
- by email to
puborder@isd.gov.hk.
- What functions are available in the Individual
Section Mode and the Whole Enactment Mode?
With the Individual Section Mode, each section, regulation,
rule, etc. of an Ordinance or subsidiary legislation
and each of its past versions dating back to 30 June 1997 is kept as
a separate document. You may view and print each of them separately
and make use of the available search facilities to retrieve
relevant sections, regulations, rules, etc.
If you want to view, download and print the complete text of the current version of an Ordinance or
subsidiary legislation in a PDF file, you can go to the
Whole Enactment Mode. Past versions of Ordinances or
subsidiary legislation, however,
are not available in this mode.
For details of use, please refer to the "How
to use BLIS" page.
-
Some Ordinances and subsidiary legislation show Part headings and Division headings in the list of section headings. Why is it that Part headings and Division headings are not shown in some other Ordinances and subsidiary legislation?
In the past, a Part heading or Division heading of an Ordinance or subsidiary legislation was entered as part of the text of the first section under that Part or Division, and it is not possible to see that Part heading or Division heading from the list of section headings. From July 2009 onwards, Part headings and Division headings have been added as separate documents in the BLIS database gradually, so that users may easily see what sections come under a particular Part heading or Division heading. There will be a transitional period before Part headings and Division headings could be entered for all Ordinances and subsidiary legislation in BLIS.
Individual Section Mode
- What search functions are available in the Individual
Section Mode?
It provides quick display of any section of an enactment
in either English or Chinese; full text search functions (
including searching for phrases and word combinations; searching
for definitions of terms used in the Laws; and some
customized search functions, e.g. searching for the
Laws in force at a specified date). For details, please
refer to the "How to
use BLIS" document.
- After I have effected a search in the Individual
Section Mode, the system returns "Query is not understandable!".
What should I do?
You may have searched for some system reserved keywords
which include "and", "not", "or", "contains", "near",
"accrue", "exactcase", "termweight", "paragraph", "field",
"sentence" and "topic". You can search for these words
only by placing them inside double quotes. Another possibility
is that you have disabled cookies in your browser. Try
to set your browser to accept cookies when searching
BLIS. If you are using Internet Explorer 6.0, check
to ensure that the "Privacy" under "Internet Options"
has been set to "medium high" or below.
The use of cookies in your web browser is to facilitate
database searching and navigation by keeping track of
the database view you have selected. When you close
all browsers, our cookies will be deleted at the same
time. No personal information is collected from your
computer when the system makes use of the cookies.
- Some documents are missing from the search
result of the Individual Section Mode, why?
Some statutory forms, traffic signs and other symbols
are stored as images instead of text format in the database
and the words contained inside the images are not searchable. Also, you may need to increase the maximum
results to be retrieved up to 4999 in the advanced search, but
the response time will be a bit slower. Please also
check if you have selected the correct database (i.e.
[Ordinance], [Sub. Leg.] or [Ord. & Sub. Leg.]).
- I want to use Lotus Notes to access the Individual Section Mode. What
should I do?
You need to set up your Lotus Notes R6, R7 or R8 - not any other version for technical compatibility
reason - to access the BLIS database. If you have followed
all the guidelines laid down in the zip files downloaded
from the "How to Use
BLIS" page but still cannot access the database,
you would need to consult the IT department of your
company as they may have blocked your connection for
security or other reasons.
- How can I identify the Uniform Resource
Locator (URL) of a particular document or list of documents
within the Individual Section Mode?
To identify the URL of a particular document in the
BLIS database, you have to open the list of documents containing
the heading of the document first. Then move your mouse
cursor over the heading of the document (without opening
the document) and right-click your mouse and select
"Properties" where you can find the URL of that document.
Likewise, to identify the URL of a particular list of
documents, you can open the list of documents first.
Then move your mouse cursor over the space at the front
of the first document. Right-click your mouse and select
"Properties" where you can find the URL of that list
of documents.
- The sentence "Click to show provision(s) pending update" appears on top of the page showing the list of Ordinances/subsidiary legislation. What will be shown after clicking ?
After clicking , a list of provisions with a pencil edit mark () inserted in front of their headings will appear. Each of these provisions is subject to amendments that have commenced operation but have not yet been incorporated in the text of the provision. All other provisions in BLIS (i.e., provisions not appearing in the list) are up-to-date as at today¡¦s date.
Whole Enactment Mode
- How can I view the complete text of an Ordinance or subsidiary legislation
in one go?
Enter the Whole Enactment Mode and click on the Ordinance
or subsidiary legislation that you would like to view. The table of contents of the Ordinance or subsidiary legislation and also a link to download the full text of the enactment in PDF version will be shown. You may then download the PDF file and open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader [Download Here]. For details and limitations
on use, please refer to the "How
to use BLIS" document.
- The sentence "Click to show whole enactments with provision(s) to be updated" appears on top of the page showing the list of Ordinances/subsidiary legislation. What will be shown after clicking ?
After clicking , a list of Ordinances/subsidiary legislation will appear. Each of these Ordinances/subsidiary legislation contains provisions that have been amended and the amendments, though having commenced operation, have not yet been incorporated in the text of the provisions. All other Ordinances/subsidiary legislation (i.e., Ordinances/subsidiary legislation not in the list) are up-to-date as at today¡¦s date.
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