Local lawyer: Legal system of Macau is bad and botched

Local lawyer Manuela António claims that influence peddling and the length of resolution of legal cases is affecting foreign investment in Macau. The lawyer added that the laws made in Macau, for the most part, are 'botched'.

In an interview with Hoje Macau, a Portuguese publication, attorney António slammed the government of Macau, the head of the lawyers association, both the current and previous administration, and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

People's Daily Online reported that Macau's legal system is found on a strong tradition of adherence to the rule of law and judicial independence. Macau is under the principle of 'one country, two systems.'  The judges of the courts of the Macau Special Administrative Region or MSAR at all levels appointed by the Chief Executive. It then depends on the recommendation of an independent commission composed of local lawyers, justices, and eminent individuals. Judges are selected on the basis of their professional qualifications.

In theory, there are no law firms in Macau and that there are no partnerships in Macau and all lawyers are individual practitioners despite continued efforts to change the status quo, as reported by IFLR.  Linked to this issue is a number of lawyers in Macau, which is another problem. The first law graduates only emerged in the mid-1990 in the Univesity of Macau. 

According to Macau Business Daily, the female lawyer said that Macau's law and its 'sluggishness', plus a 'lack of confidence in the judicial system is extremely 'nefarious'.  António also said that the laws in Macau are difficult to interpret in Chinese and Portuguese. She added that one of the first questions that foreign investors asked when establishing a business in Macau is 'how the legal system functions, the quality of the decision, how independent are the courts, and how long does a decision take.'

Attorney António cited several reasons for Macau's 'bad quality laws'. He said that the impreciseness of the Chinese language, which is not an easy language to work with legally because it's not exact, and the process of creating a law and reviewing it is not good for Macau and the people. 

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local lawyer, legal system macau, bad, botched, macau government, macau legal system, portuguese administration in macau, chinese government in macau

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