Central and Western District Council 中西區區議會 | |
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Type | |
Type | |
History | |
Founded | 18 March 1982 1 July 1997 (Provisional) 1 January 2000 (District Council) | (District Board)
Leadership | |
Chair | David Leung Chi-kei, Independent |
Structure | |
Seats | 20 councillors consisting of 4 elected members 8 district committee members 8 appointed members |
6 / 20 | |
2 / 20 | |
1 / 20 | |
11 / 20 | |
Elections | |
First past the post | |
Last election | 10 December 2023 |
Meeting place | |
11/F, Harbour Building, 38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong | |
Website | |
www |
Central and Western District Council | |||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 中西區區議會 | ||||||||
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The Central and Western District Council is the district council for the Central and Western District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Central and Western District Council currently consists of 15 members, of which the district is divided into two constituencies, electing a total of 4 members, 8 district committee members, and 8 appointed members. The last election was held on 10 December 2023.
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The Law You Won't Be Told
Transcription
# The Law You Won't Be Told On a Jury you know your options: guilty, or not. But there's another choice that neither the judge nor the lawyers will tell you -- often because they're not allowed to and also it might better if you *don't* know. This video will tell you that third choice, but be warned: simply *watching* may prevent you from ever serving on a jury -- so this is your last chance to hit the pause button before you learn about... Jury nullification: when the defendant is 100% beyond-a-reasonable-doubt guilty *but* the jurors *also* think he shouldn't be punished. The jury can nullify the law and let him go free. But before your on your next jury and yell 'Null! Booya!' at the judge you should know that just talking about jury nullification in the wrong circumstances can get you arrested. Though a video such as this one, simply acknowledging the *existence* of jury nullification and in *no way advocating* it is totally OK. And, while we're at it: *(CGP Grey is not a lawyer, this is not legal advice it is meant for entertainment purposes only. Seriously, guy, don't do anything in a court of law based on what an Internet Video told you. No joke.)* So why can't you do this? It's because nullification isn't *in* the law †, but exists as a logical consequence of two other laws: First: that juries can't be punished for a 'wrong' decision -- no matter the witnesses, DNA, or video proof show. That's the point of a jury: to be the decider. and Second: when a defendant is found not-guilty, that defendant can't be tried again for the same crime ‡. So there *are* only two stated options: guilty or not, it's just that jury nullification is when the words of the jurors don't match their thoughts -- for which they can't be punished and their not-guilty decision can't be changed. These laws are necessary for juries to exist within a fair system, but the logical consequence is... contentious -- lawyers and judges argue about jury nullification like physicists argue about quantum mechanics. Both are difficult to observe and the interpretation of both has a huge philosophical ramification for the subject as a whole. Is nullification the righteous will of the people or an anarchy of twelve or just how citizens judge their laws? The go-to example in favor of nullification is the fugitive slave law: when Northern juries refused to convict escaped slaves and set them free. Can't argue with that. But the anarchy side is Southern juries refusing to convict white lynch mobs. Not humanity at its best. But both of these are juries nullifying the law. Also juries have *two* options where their thoughts may differ from their words. Jury nullification usually refers to the non-guilty version but juries can convict without evidence just as easily as they can acquit in spite of it. This is jury nullification too and the jurors are protected by the first rule, though the second doesn't apply and judges have the power to overrule a guilty verdict if they think the jurors are… nt the best. And, of course, a guilty defendant can appeal, at least for a little while. Which makes the guilty form of jury nullification weaker than the not-guilty kind. Cold comfort, though. Given the possibility of jurors who might ignore the law as written, it's not surprising when picking jurors for a trial, lawyers -- whose existence is dependent on an orderly society -- will ask about nullification, usually in the slightly roundabout way: "Do you have any beliefs that might prevent you from making a decision based strictly on the law?" If after learning about jury nullification you think it's a good idea: answer 'yes' and you'll be rejected, but answer 'no' with the intent to get on the jury to nullify and you've just committed perjury -- technically a federal crime -- which makes the optimal strategy once on a jury to zip it. But This introduces a problem for jurors who intend to nullify: telling the other 11 angry men about your position is risky, which makes nullification as a tool for fixing unjust laws nation wide problematic. (Not to mention about 95% of criminal charges in the United States never make it to trial and rather end in a plea bargain, but that's a story for another time.) The only question about jury nullification that may matter is if jurors should be *told* about it and the courts are near universal † in their decision: 'no way'. Which might seem self-interested -- again, courts depend on the law -- but there's evidence that telling jurors about nullification changes the way they vote by making evidence less relevant -- which isn't surprising: that's what nullification *is*. But mock trials also show sympathetic defendants get more non-guilty verdicts and unsympathetic defendants get more *guilty* verdicts in front of jurors who were explicitly told about nullification compared to those who weren't. Which sounds bad, but it also isn't difficult to imagine situations where jurors blindly following the law would be terribly unjust -- which is the heart of nullification: juries judge the law, not solely evidence. In the end righteous will of the people, or anarchy, or citizen lawmaking -- the system leaves you to decide -- but as long as courts are fair they require these rules, so jury nullification will always be with us.
History
The Central and Western District Council was established on 18 March 1982 under the name of the Central and Western District Board as the result of the colonial Governor Murray MacLehose's District Administration Scheme reform. The District Board was partly elected with the ex-officio Urban Council members, as well as members appointed by the Governor until 1994 when last Governor Chris Patten refrained from appointing any member.
The Central and Western District Board became Central and Western Provisional District Board after the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) was established in 1997 with the appointment system being reintroduced by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. The Central and Western District Council was established on 1 January 2000 after the first District Council election in 1999. The council has become fully elected when the appointed seats were abolished in 2011 after the modified constitutional reform proposal was passed by the Legislative Council in 2010.
The Central and Western Board was largely non-partisan in the 1980s. In the 1985 election, an electoral coalition of 12 incumbents based on personal network surrounding Vincent Ko Hon-chiu of the Hong Kong People's Association, later the board chairman, contested in the election, winning 10 seats in total.[1] The board gradually divided into liberal and conservative blocs in the late 1980s and split into pro-democracy United Democrats of Hong Kong (UDHK) and the conservative Liberal Democratic Federation of Hong Kong (LDF) which were formed in 1990.
The Democratic Party, the merger of UDHK and Meeting Point, took control of the board from 1994 to 1997 after the abolishment of the appointed seats. The Democratic majority was offset by the pro-Beijing camp when appointed seats were reintroduced in 1997. In the 2003 tide of democracy after the July 1 protest, the pro-democrats formed the Central and Western Democratic Power for the 2003 election and won seven seats, which saw pro-democrat Legislative Councillor Cyd Ho defeating Ip Kwok-him of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB) in his long-held constituency of Kwun Lung. Democratic Party's Kam Nai-wai was able to take the chairmanship with the help of appointed member Wu Chor-nam.[2] Kam's decision to co-operate with an appointed member sparked controversy which caused Kam to resign soon afterward.[3]
The Democratic Party remained the largest party in the council until the 2007 election when the DAB surpassed the Democratic Party in the number of seats for the first time. In the by-elections in 2017 for Peak and Tung Wah, the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy camps took each of the seats, giving the Democrats the same numbers of seat as the DAB, both commanding five seats.
In the 2019 election amid the ongoing pro-democracy protests, the pro-democrats scored a historic landslide victory by taking 14 of the 15 seats, with DAB being completely wiped out from the council and its legislator Cheung Kwok-kwan being ousted in Sai Wan. The Democratic Party became the largest party with seven seats with Cheng Lai-king and Victor Yeung taking the chair and vice chair posts respectively.
Political control
Since 1982 political control of the council has been held by the following parties:
Camp in control | Largest party | Years | Composition |
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No Overall Control | Civic Association | 1982 - 1985 | |
No Overall Control | People's Association | 1985 - 1988 |
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No Overall Control | HKAS → United Democrats | 1988 - 1991 |
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Pro-government | United Democrats | 1991 - 1994 |
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Pro-democracy | Democratic (majority) | 1994 - 1997 |
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Pro-Beijing | Democratic | 1997 - 1999 |
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Pro-Beijing | Democratic | 2000 - 2003 |
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Pro-Beijing | Democratic | 2004 - 2007 |
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Pro-Beijing | Democratic | 2008 - 2011 |
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Pro-Beijing | DAB | 2012 - 2015 |
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Pro-Beijing | DAB → DAB/Democratic | 2016 - 2019 |
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Pro-democracy | Democratic | 2020 - 2023 |
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Pro-Beijing | Independent | 2024 - 2027 |
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Political makeup
Elections are held every four years.
Political party | Council members | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | 1985 | 1988 | 1991 | 1994 | 1999 | 2003 | 2007 | 2011 | 2015 | 2019 | 2023 | ||
DAB | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 2 | ||||||
Independent | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 1 | |
Liberal | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Democratic | 8 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | ||||||
Civic | 1 | ||||||||||||
CWDP | 2 | ||||||||||||
Frontier | 1 | ||||||||||||
HKPA | 1 | ||||||||||||
United Democrats | 5 | ||||||||||||
LDF | 2 | ||||||||||||
Civic | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
FTU | 1 | ||||||||||||
Meeting Point | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||
HKAS | 5 | ||||||||||||
Reform | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
PHKS | 1 | ||||||||||||
ADPL | 1 | ||||||||||||
Central and Western District Coalition | 10 | ||||||||||||
Total elected members | 5 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 4 | |
Other members | 12 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 16 |
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1994
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1999
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2003
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2007
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2011
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2015
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2019
Members represented
Capacity | Code | Constituency | Name | Political affiliation | Term | Notes | ||
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Elected | A01 | Central | Jan Noel Shih | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | ||
Karl Fung Kar-leung | Liberal | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
A02 | Western | Timothy Lau Tin-ching | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||
Mandy Wong Sin-man | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
District Committees | Yeung Hok-ming | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | ||||
Iris Cheung Ka-yan | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Yeung Hoi-wing | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Sidney Lee Chi-hang | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Zhang Zong | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Law Kam-fai | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Chiu Wah-kuen | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Wu Man-hin | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Appointed | Ip Yik-nam | DAB | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | ||||
Ben Lui Hung-pan | FTU | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Jeremy Young Chit-on | Liberal | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Ng Yin | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Qiu Songqing | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Jin Ling | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Eugene Chan Kin-keung | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent | |||||
Yip Wing-shing | Independent | 1 January 2024 | Incumbent |
Leadership
Chairs
Between 1985 and 2023, the chairman is elected by all the members of the council.
Chairman | Years | Political Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
A. G. Cooper | 1982–1983 | District Officer | |
Lolly Chiu Yuen-chu | 1983–1984 | District Officer | |
Lam Kam-kwong | 1984–1985 | District Officer | |
Vincent Ko Hon-chiu[4] | 1985–1988 | People's Association | |
Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen[5] | 1988–1994 | Independent→PA | |
Yuen Bun-keung[6] | 1994–1997 | Democratic | |
Stephen Chan Chit-kwai[7] | 1997–2000 | Independent | |
Wu Chor-nam[8] | 2000–2003 | Independent | |
Chan Tak-chor[9][a] | 2004–2011 | Liberal→Independent | |
Yip Wing-shing[10] | 2012–2019 | Independent | |
Cheng Lai-king | 2020–2021 | Democratic | |
David Leung Chi-kei | 2024–present | District Officer |
Vice Chairs
Vice Chairman | Years | Political Affiliation | |
---|---|---|---|
Chan Tak-chor | 2000–2003 | Liberal | |
Wu Chor-nam | 2004–2007 | Independent | |
Stephen Chan Chit-kwai | 2008–2011 | Independent | |
Chan Hok-fung | 2012–2019 | DAB | |
Victor Yeung Sui-yin | 2020–2023 | Democratic→Independent |
Notes
- ^ Democratic Party's Kam Nai-wai was initially elected as chairman but soon resigned from the office.[3]
References
- ^ "百姓 - Issues 159-170". 百姓半月刊編輯委員會. 1988. p. 3.
- ^ "破例與委任議員結盟 民主黨奪中西區區會主席". 蘋果日報. 7 January 2004.
- ^ a b "中西區區議員甘乃威辭去區議會主席以釋疑慮". Democratic Party. 9 January 2004. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ Growing with Hong Kong: The University and Its Graduates-The First 90 Years. Hong Kong University Press. p. 276.
- ^ "Legislative Council Report 2002-03" (PDF). Legislative Council of Hong Kong.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Biography of Yuen Bun-keung". Democratic Party. 1999. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Daily Information Bulletin". Government Information Services. 4 July 1997. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "HKSAR Central & Western District Council". webb-site.com. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Member Details of Central and Western District Council". Central and Western District Council. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- ^ "Central & Western District Council Members (2008 - 2011)". Central and Western District Council. Archived from the original on 1 June 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
External links