Official Languages Ordinance

Legislative Council of Hong Kong

Long title

* An Ordinance to provide for the official languages of Hong Kong, and for their status and use.

Citation| Cap. 5
Enacted by| Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Commenced| 15 February 1974
Legislative history
Introduced by| Secretary for Home Affairs Denis Campbell Bray
Introduced| 11 January 1974
First reading| 30 January 1974
Second reading| 13 February 1974
Third reading| 13 February 1974
Amended by
1975, 1980, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2011, 2017[1]
Status: Current legislation

The Official Languages Ordinance is an ordinance of Hong Kong enacted for the purpose of specifying the status and use of official languages of the territory. Both Chinese and English are declared official languages with equal status in the ordinance, and are to be used in communication between the government and members of the public.[2] It dictates that all ordinances would be enacted and published in both languages,[3] and allows judicial officers the choice of using either language in court proceedings.[4]

## History

[edit]

While no law existed prior to 1974 to designate official languages in Hong Kong, by practice, English was the sole language used in all branches of the British colonial government. Under public pressure, the Official Languages Ordinance was enacted in 1974 to declare that both English and Chinese may be used in communication between the government and the public. Despite the usage of different dialects in spoken Chinese, the government chose not to specify a dialect as an official language, instead indicating "Chinese" as an official language, allowing any dialect to be used. Since most of the local population spoke Cantonese, it became the most frequently used dialect in official communication.[5]

Following the introduction of the Ordinance, application was uneven. Ordinances continued to be published in English only until the 1980s and Chinese could not be used procedurally in the courts until 1995.[6] In 2020, there was a marked departure from the Ordinance when the Hong Kong National Security Law was passed as it was only issued in Chinese with no official English translation issued alongside. It also stated that the Chinese translation would prevail over any English version in interpretation.[7]

## References

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1. ^ "Enactment History of Cap. 5 Official Languages Ordinance". Cap. 5 Official Languages Ordinance. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
2. ^ "Official Languages Ordinance, Official languages and their status and use (Cap 5, Section 3)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
3. ^ "Official Languages Ordinance, Enactment of Ordinances in both official languages (Cap 5, Section 4)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
4. ^ "Official Languages Ordinance, Judicial proceedings (Cap 5, Section 5)". HKSAR Department of Justice. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
5. ^ Peter Dickson and Alister Cumming (1996). "National Profiles of Language Education in 25 Countries" (PDF). National Foundation for Educational Research. p. 41\. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
6. ^ "Why are most of the top court's judgments still only available in English?". South China Morning Post. 16 September 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2025.
7. ^ "Chinese text of national security law prevails over English". Young Post. 6 July 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2025 – via South China Morning Post.

## External links

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* The full text of Official Languages Ordinance 1974 at Wikisource
* Full text of the Official Languages Ordinance