Cap 339 - HOMICIDE ORDINANCE 1

Chapter: 339 HOMICIDE ORDINANCE Gazette Number Version Date

Long title 30/06/1997


To make amendments to the law relating to homicide.


[10 May 1963]

(Originally 16 of 1963)

Section: 1 Short title 30/06/1997


This Ordinance may be cited as the Homicide Ordinance.

Section: 2 Abolition of "constructive malice" 30/06/1997


(1) Where a person kills another in the course or furtherance of some other offence, the killing shall not amount
to murder unless done with the same malice aforethought (express or implied) as is required for a killing to amount to
murder when not done in the course or furtherance of another offence.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), a killing done in the course or for the purpose of resisting an officer of
justice, or of resisting or avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest, or of effecting or assisting an escape or rescue from
legal custody, shall be treated as a killing in the course or furtherance of an offence.

[cf. 1957 c. 11 s. 1 U.K.]

Section: 3 Persons suffering from diminished responsibility 30/06/1997


(1) Where a person kills or is a party to the killing of another, he shall not be convicted of murder if he was
suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of arrested or retarded development of
mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his
acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.

(2) On a charge of murder, it shall be for the defence to prove that the person charged is by virtue of this
section not liable to be convicted of murder.

(3) A person who but for this section would be liable, whether as principal or as accessory, to be convicted of
murder shall be liable instead to be convicted of manslaughter.

(4) The fact that one party to a killing is by virtue of this section not liable to be convicted of murder shall not
affect the question whether the killing amounted to murder in the case of any other party to it.

[cf. 1957 c. 11 s. 2 U.K.]

Section: 4 Provocation 30/06/1997


Where on a charge of murder there is evidence on which the jury can find that the person charged was provoked
(whether by things done or by things said or by both together) to lose his self-control, the question whether the
provocation was enough to make a reasonable man do as he did shall be left to be determined by the jury; and in
determining that question the jury shall take into account everything both done and said according to the effect which,
in their opinion, it would have on a reasonable man.

[cf. 1957 c. 11 s. 3 U.K.]

Section: 5 Suicide pacts 10 of 2008 09/05/2008


(1) It shall be manslaughter, and shall not be murder, for a person acting in pursuance of a suicide pact between
him and another to kill the other or be a party to the other being killed by a third person.

(2) Where it is shown that a person charged with the murder of another killed the other or was a party to his
being killed, it shall be for the defence to prove that the person charged was acting in pursuance of a suicide pact
between him and the other.



Cap 339 - HOMICIDE ORDINANCE 2

(3) For the purposes of this section, "suicide pact" (自殺協定) means a common agreement between two or
more persons having for its object the death of all of them, whether or not each is to take his own life, but nothing
done by a person who enters into a suicide pact shall be treated as done by him in pursuance of the pact unless it is
done while he has the settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact.

(Amended 10 of 2008 s. 14)
[cf. 1957 c. 11 s. 4 U.K.]


Section: 6 (Repealed 24 of 1993 s. 23) 30/06/1997




Section: 7 Past offences 30/06/1997


The provisions of this Ordinance shall not have effect in relation to any offence in respect of which an
indictment has been signed before the commencement of this Ordinance but, subject thereto, such provisions shall
have effect in relation to offences committed wholly or partly before the commencement of this Ordinance in like
manner as they apply to offences committed thereafter.

[cf. 1957 c. 11 s. 16 U.K.]