Rules & Regulations

25. A General Meeting of the Bar Association shall be held once in every calendar year on the Third Thursday in January, or on such other dates in the same calendar month, or should such meeting be or become prohibited by Law, within 28 days of the prohibition being lifted, and at such place and time as the Bar Council may determine. Such General Meetings shall be called Annual General Meetings. All other General Meetings of the Bar Association shall be called Extraordinary General Meetings. (Circular No. 016/24)

26. The Bar Council may, whenever it thinks fit, and it shall, upon a request made in writing to the Honorary Secretary by not less than twenty Members, convene an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Bar Association. If the Bar Council does not within twenty-one days after the receipt by the Honorary Secretary of such request duly convene any such meeting, any twelve of those making the request may themselves convene an Extraordinary General Meeting. The request must state the precise objects of the meeting (including any resolution intended to be moved thereat) and must be signed by those making it, and may consist of several documents in like form each signed by one or more of such Members.

27. Not less than fourteen clear days’ notice of any Annual or Extraordinary General Meeting shall be given to all Members entitled to receive notice of such meeting and shall be posted on the notice board in the Robing Room of the High Court. Such notice shall specify the place, the date and time of such meeting but it shall not be necessary to specify in any such notice the nature of any business to be transacted or resolution to be proposed. The notice sent to Members shall in the case of special business shall state the nature of such business. The accidental omission to give notice of a meeting, or of any business proposed to be transacted thereat, to, or the non-receipt of such notice by, any such Member shall not invalidate the proceedings of any General Meeting. The place, date or time of any such meeting given by a notice may be changed, by order of the Bar Council, by the giving and posting of another notice as aforesaid not less than two days before the time stated in the first-mentioned notice, to another place, or to another date (provided the new date complies with Regulation 25) or to another time, irrespective of whether fourteen clear days’ notice is given for the new place, date or time.

28. All business shall be deemed special business that is transacted at an Extraordinary General Meeting, and all that is transacted at an Annual General Meeting shall also be deemed special with the exception of the Accounts, Balance Sheet, the Annual Statement and the election of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman or Vice-Chairmen, Elected Members, the Honorary Secretary and the Deputy Honorary Secretary.

29. Any Member shall be at liberty to move the adoption of any resolution at any General Meeting provided that written notice thereof, shall have been delivered in writing to the Honorary Secretary not less than ten clear days before the day of the Meeting. The Honorary Secretary shall, within seven clear days before the day of the Meeting, send a copy of such proposed resolution to each Member.

30. No business shall be transacted at any General Meeting unless a quorum is present at the time when the Meeting proceeds to business and, save as herein otherwise provided, a quorum shall be not less than twenty Members personally present and entitled to vote.

31. If within a quarter of an hour from the time appointed for a General Meeting a quorum be not present, the Meeting, if convened upon request pursuant to these presents, shall be dissolved. In any other case it shall stand adjourned to the same day in the next week at the same time and place or at such other time and place as the chairman of the Meeting shall appoint; and if at such adjourned Meeting a quorum be not present within a quarter of an hour after the time appointed for the Meeting, those Members who are personally present shall constitute a quorum.

32. The Chairman shall preside as chairman at all General Meetings at which he shall be present, but if he is incapacitated or disqualified from acting for reasons of health or otherwise or is absent from Hong Kong, the Vice-Chairman (if there is only one Vice-Chairman), or the Senior Vice-Chairman (if there is more than one Vice-Chairman), shall act as the chairman of such Meeting. If the Senior Vice-Chairman is in turn incapacitated or disqualified or absent as aforesaid, the other Vice-Chairman shall act as the chairman of the Meeting. If the Vice-Chairman (if there is only one Vice-Chairman) or both Vice-Chairmen (if there is more than one Vice-Chairman) are in turn incapacitated or disqualified or absent as aforesaid, the Bar Council shall appoint a Member of the Bar Council to act as chairman of such Meeting.

Provided where an Election Committee has been appointed under Regulation 10A the Bar Council may appoint the chairman of the Election Committee to preside as chairman of that part of the Meeting which concerns or deals with any matters or businesses relating to the election or elections under Regulation 10, and for such purposes the chairman of the Election Committee so appointed shall have all the powers of the chairman of the Meeting in the conduct of that part of the Meeting.

33. (a) At a General Meeting no Member shall be permitted, without the consent of the chairman of the Meeting, to speak more than once on the same question, except that the mover, or in his absence, the seconder of any resolution, shall be allowed to speak in reply.

(b) The mover or seconder of a resolution or of an amendment to a resolution at a General Meeting shall not, without the consent of the chairman of the Meeting, speak for more than ten minutes.

(c) No other Member shall, without such consent, speak for more than five minutes.

(d) At any stage after a resolution has been moved and seconded any Member who has not spoken on the resolution may, unless the chairman of the Meeting rules otherwise, move - "That the question be now put." Such motion if formally seconded shall be put forthwith and without debate and the provisions in Regulation 35 for a ballot shall not apply. If this motion is carried the mover of the resolution under debate or his seconder shall immediately proceed to exercise his right of reply and at the conclusion of such reply the resolution shall be put to the vote forthwith and without debate.

(e) Any Member who has given notice of a resolution pursuant to Regulation 29 may, without the consent of the Meeting, withdraw the resolution at any time before speaking to it. Thereafter he may withdraw it only with the leave of the chairman of the Meeting which shall not be given if any Member present objects and before giving such leave the chairman of the Meeting shall ask the Meeting if there is any such objection.

(f) No amendment of a resolution at a General Meeting shall be moved without the consent of the chairman of the Meeting unless notice thereof shall have been given in writing to the Honorary Secretary not less than five clear days before the day of the Meeting.

(g) Whenever an amendment of a resolution at a General Meeting has been moved and seconded no second or subsequent amendment shall be moved until the first amendment shall have been disposed of.

(h) The chairman of the Meeting may call the attention of the Meeting to any continued irrelevance or repetition or any breach of order on the part of a speaker and may direct such Member to discontinue his speech.

34. The chairman of the Meeting may, with the consent of any General Meeting at which a quorum is present (and shall if so directed by the Meeting), adjourn the Meeting from time to time and from place to place, but no business shall be transacted at any adjourned Meeting other than business which might have been transacted at the Meeting from which the adjournment took place. When a Meeting is adjourned for twenty-one days or more then Regulation 27 shall apply regarding the giving of notice of the adjourned Meeting and any change of the place, date or time of such adjourned Meeting (save that Regulation 25 shall not apply). Save as aforesaid it shall not be necessary to give any notice of an adjourned Meeting or of the business to be transacted thereat.

35. (1) At all General Meetings a resolution put to the vote of the Meeting shall be decided on a show of hands by a majority of those Members present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote, unless before or upon the declaration of the result of a show of hands a ballot be demanded by at least one-half of those Members present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote, or by fifteen of them (whichever number be the less), and, unless a ballot be so demanded, a declaration by the chairman of the Meeting that a resolution has been carried or not carried, or carried or not carried by a particular majority, shall be conclusive, and an entry to that effect in the Minute Book of the Bar Association shall be conclusive evidence thereof without proof of the number or proportion of the votes recorded in favour of or against such resolution.

(2) For the purposes of the foregoing sub-paragraph, the chairman of the Meeting shall determine the manner in which proxies (if any) are voted on a show of hands or by ballot.

36. The result of any resolution may be made public if, and in such manner as, the chairman of the Meeting shall direct.

37. No ballot shall be demanded on any question of adjournment.

38. All General Meetings shall be conducted under the direction of the chairman of the Meeting thereof, whose ruling in any matter whatsoever concerning the conduct of the Meeting shall, if not inconsistent with the Regulations, be final.

39. In the case of an equality of votes, whether on a show of hands or on a ballot, the chairman of the Meeting shall be entitled to a second or casting vote.