Lèse-majesté crimes are a historical relic incompatible with Hong Kong law
Bryane Michael says politicians cannot criminalise insulting the police because this is not a crime in our legal system
Talking trash could land you in jail. Or at least that is the proposal of groups like the police and public hygiene unions.
Jurisdictions like France and Turkey already have rules that Hong Kong’s law enforcement bodies seek to implant here. Many have called the controversial move more political than legal. I beg to disagree.
Lèse-majesté – or offending the dignity of the sovereign and its servants – dates back to the Roman Empire. Its criminalisation was and is – by its very nature – a legal decision. Lèse-majesté laws remain atavistic relics mainly in former kingdoms like France and current ones like Thailand and Brunei. Even in our own historical tradition, that’s why we used to refer to crimes as “the Queen vs Joe Bloggs”.
Yet, Hong Kong’s politicians cannot criminalise insulting law enforcement officers because these insults do not fundamentally represent crimes in our legal system. You can’t criminalise something that, by its very nature, is not a crime.
To see why, compare such lèse-majesté laws with laws against dogs fouling public walkways. We regulate fouling with the Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance (Chap 570) and Public Cleansing and Preventing of Nuisances Regulation (Chap 132).