ARCHBOLD HONG KONG 2025
Editor-in-Chief: The Hon Mr Justice Bokhary
General Editor: Professor Simon Young
Sweet & Maxwell
October 2025
Preface by the General Editor
In the 2010 volume of this text, the then General Editor, Mr Clive Grossman SC, referred to the high convictions rates in Hong Kong and likened them to approaching those in North Korea. Those comments sparked controversy and debate in the community. A panel of the Legislative Council (LegCo) discussed the issue in October 2009 and later when the panel discussed reforms to criminal legal aid and whether trial by jury should be incorporated in District Court criminal trials. One positive outcome of the debate was clearer reporting of conviction rates from the Department of Justice (DOJ), by disaggregating the rate in cases of pleas of not guilty from the overall rate, which included guilty plea cases.
Fifteen years on, what trends do we see in the conviction rates in the three levels of criminal courts? The graphs below show the conviction rates after trial compared to the overall conviction rates in the Magistrates’ Court, District Court, Court of First Instance, and all courts combined, from 2010 to 2024. The data is taken from the DOJ Prosecutions Division’s yearly review reports.
The data is based on conviction rates per defendant, meaning a defendant convicted of any offence will be counted, but will not be counted if acquitted outright. As the Law Society of Hong Kong noted in its 2010 submission to LegCo, such an approach can result in higher rates than one based on counting convictions per offence(s) charged.
The overall conviction rates in the District Court (94%) and Court of First Instance (91%) are still high on average, little changed from those noted by Mr Grossman in 2009. The average overall rate in the Magistrates’ Court, on the other hand, is 71%, which raises the question whether some defendants should not have been charged at all or dealt with by alternative measures. But there has been a significant drop in the number of persons prosecuted in the Magistrates’ Court. In 2010, 9295 were convicted and 3299 acquitted, compared to the 2742 convicted and 1236 acquitted in 2024. Since 2017, there is a consistent trend of more convicted persons choosing trial over pleading guilty in magistracy cases.
No single factor can explain the differences in the post-trial conviction rates in the three courts. The types of cases normally tried at each tier would be an important factor. For example, conviction rates for sexual offences may be known anecdotally to be lower than those in cases of other offences, such as money laundering. Practices in making and reconsidering decisions to prosecute, the quality of legal advice given, if any, to defendants, the obstinance of defendants to opt for trial despite legal advice to the contrary, the effectiveness of defence and prosecuting trial counsel, the effect of delay on trial outcomes, and biases (whether conscious or unconscious) in decision-makers are other potential factors. More research would need to be conducted to understand the reasons for the different rates of conviction.
In 2010, the Law Society did not believe the conviction rate data supported the case for having juries in the District Court because at the time the rate of conviction in the Court of First Instance was higher than that in the District Court. As that position has now clearly changed, one might want to revisit the issue of juries in the District Court or at least the right of a defendant in certain cases to elect trial by jury.
After eight volumes at the helm of editing this important text, I have decided to pass the torch to a new General Editor. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the importance of the timely contributions made by our large team of contributing editors. We have tried to retain and recruit contributors who are not only passionate about the criminal law but can also keep their respective chapter(s) updated, sometimes with new ideas and improvements. I am most grateful to all the past and current contributing editors for their dedication and service. I am also grateful to the Editor-in-Chief and Sentencing Editor who have provided us with constant support and encouragement. I wish to thank my many student editors who have helped me over the years, particularly Liam Lai and Jonathan Ho for this current volume; it is heartening to see some of them go to become criminal law practitioners. Finally, I am fortunate to have the support of the publishing team at Sweet & Maxwell. They keep us on track and have great patience when we fall behind. I particularly acknowledge Wing Yan Ng for her kindness and helpful assistance. I wish the new General Editor all the very best in taking this publication forward.
Professor Simon NM Young
Ian Davies Professor in Ethics
Parkside Chambers
29 August 2025