João Benazra Faria*
When I first arrived in Macau, roughly 10 years ago, one of the best things about practicing law here was a website that ensured a simple, reliable and immediate access to all laws, rules and regulations in force in the region. It was the Official Gazette’s website of the Macau SAR, created and maintained by the Government Printing Bureau. It still exists, but was recently subject to changes.
A good friend of mine who was directly involved in the creation of such platform once told me that the website had been set up before the handover. This information made it seem even more remarkable, given that the internet was still in its early days at the turn of the century. In 2007, in Portugal, we still had to deal with torrents of legal diplomas, reciprocally revoking, amending or superseding each other, typically only available in pdf format (or paper), resulting in unbelievable legal jigsaw exercises or in the superfluous acquisition of printed consolidated materials. Some online services catered to such needs, but they were paid and not very expeditious.
On the contrary, the website of the Official Gazette of the Macau SAR was free, straightforward and super-efficient, enabling anyone who wanted to know the laws in force in each area – be it civil law, commercial law, procedural law, healthcare, external trade, etc. – to land in a page called All Categories, with immediate access to the relevant content. This was not only a tremendous tool for law professionals, but also a major contribution to implement the fundamental right of access to the law, to which all residents are entitled, in accordance with article 36 of the Macau Basic Law.
As mentioned, the website of the Official Gazette still exists, but was recently subject to changes, not only of aesthetic nature, but also in terms of how the access to the content is made. The content is there, the laws, rules and regulations are still displayed in lovely simple html pages, where keywords can easily be found with a swift Ctrl+f, but there is no All Categories page anymore. Small change, big impact.
Currently, to find legislation applicable to a certain area, users must know what legal instruments they are specifically looking for, either by reference to the respective type and number or to the entities directly or indirectly related with said instruments – unsurprisingly, despite Google, users may not have such information and that circumstance may well be one of the reasons for the visit to the website.
The new website architecture does not prevent users from accessing Macau laws, rules and regulations, but certainly makes such access much less practical and effective.
Hope it will change, again, for the better. *Senior Associate, MdME Lawyers
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