As a British Colony, Hong Kong belongs to the Common Law
jurisdiction, whereas China is a socialist society and its legal
system aims to further the goal of socialism. In these varying
political, social and economic environments, it is pertinent to
know the legal conceptions and moral standards of the young
people in Beijing, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The present study
revolves around the following four aspects: moral standard, value
judgment, legal conceptions and legal confidence. The comparison
on the findings of the study has revealed much interesting
phenomenon and thought-provoking.
Major findings:
Young people in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing do not
have very strong confidence in their judicial systems but
they concede that the law is a cornerstone of maintaining
social order;
Almost half of the Hong Kong respondents thought that an
offender could be cleared of legal liabilities if the
person involved was wealthy, compared to 28 per cent and
17 per cent in Beijing and Guangzhou respectively;
On questions of moral judgement such as pre-marital sex,
it showed that as high as over 40 per cent of the Beijing
respondents found it acceptable, while a similar
percentage of their Guangzhou counterparts had an
opposite position;
More than half of the Hong Kong respondents were
confident of a just court trial, whereas about 40 per
cent of those in Guangzhou and Beijing thought the same.
Another 40 per cent of Guangzhou and Beijing respondents
could not give a certain answer;
Young people from all three places generally had a
negative perceptiion of the lawyers. Forty per cent of
the Hong Kong respondents said they did not believe that
lawyers were impartial, while 62 per cent of those in
Guangzhou said they were unsure. No prevailing views were
sought among the Beijing youngsters;
Views were also divided on whether these young
respondents believed that every person was equal before
the law. Nearly 60 per cent of the Beijing respondents
did not believe so;
As far as legal conceptions were concerned, most of the
respondents agreed that the court should not follow
instructions from the government. It was, however, shown
that about 40 per cent of those in Beijing and more than
3o per cent in Hong Kong thought the opposite;
Over 70 per cent of Hong Kong respondents agreed that
homosexuals should not be penalized. Only 43 per cent of
those in Beijing and a quarter in Guangzhou held the same
opinion;
Meanwhile, the majority of the young said they were in
support of death penalty, ut more than one-third of those
in Hong Kong disagreed. About 40 and 23 per cent of those
in Guangzhou and Beijing were unsure.
京穗港青年比較研究系列(三地)＜二＞