Emergency Regulations Ordinance

Emergency Regulations Ordinance
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
  • An Ordinance to confer on the Chief Executive in Council power to make regulations on occasions of emergency or public danger.
CitationCap. 241
Enacted byLegislative Council of Hong Kong
Commenced28 February 1922
Legislative history
Bill titleStrike Legislation Bill 1922[1]
Introduced byAttorney General Joseph Horsford Kemp
First reading28 February 1922
Second reading28 February 1922
Third reading28 February 1922
Status: In force

The Emergency Regulations Ordinance (Cap. 241) is a law of Hong Kong that confers on the Chief Executive in Council the power to make regulations on occasions that the Chief Executive believes to be an emergency or public danger. It was first introduced in Colonial Hong Kong in 1922 to combat the seamen's strikes which had immobilised the city's ports, and was invoked on several occasions during the colonial rule.[2]

In case of emergency or public danger, it can be invoked by the Chief Executive-in-Council. Under the provisions of the ordinance, the Chief Executive has the power to make "any regulations whatsoever which he may consider desirable in the public interest." Among the many powers permitting the Chief Executive to exercise upon invoking the ordinance, it also include arrests, property seizures, deportation, control of the ports and transportation, and censorship.[3][4]

The government invoked the ordinance during the 1967 Hong Kong riots, during the oil crisis in 1973,[5] during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests and postponing the 2020 Legislative Council election.[4]

  1. ^ "Bill Database". Government of Hong Kong. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference scmp3024980 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Yu, Verna (28 August 2019). "'A nuclear option': Hong Kong and the threat of the emergency law". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  4. ^ a b "How Hong Kong protests could lead to internet cut-off". Bloomberg. 30 August 2019. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  5. ^ Miners, N. (1996). "The use and abuse of emergency powers by the Hong Kong Government". Hong Kong Law Journal. ISSN 0378-0600. Archived from the original on 10 October 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.