Dr Elsie Leung Oi-sie is the former Secretary for Justice and a past Member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG).
Before her appointment as Secretary for Justice, Ms Leung served on various government boards and committees, including the Independent Police Complaints Council, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Social Welfare Advisory Committee and the Inland Revenue Board of Review. She is also a past President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers and the legal adviser to a number of non-government organisations. In the period leading up to Hong Kong’s reunification with China, she advised the Chief Executive (Designate) on legal matters relating to the establishment of the HKSARG. On 1 July 1997, she became the first Secretary for Justice and a Member of the Executive Council of the HKSARG. She was re-appointed 5 years later, and retired in October 2005.
As secretary for justice, Dr. Leung was the Chairperson of the Law Reform Commission, the Committee on Bilingual Legal System, the Legal Practitioners’ Liaison Committee and served on numerous committees, including the Fight Crime Committee and the Operations Review Committee of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
From 2006 to 2018, she was appointed the Deputy Director of the Basic Law Committee of the HKSAR. Having resumed private practice in late 2006, a notary public and a China-appointed attesting officer. In August 2009, for the purpose of sustaining promotion of legal bilingualism, Dr. Leung, Dr. Anthony Neoh, and a group of distinguished scholars and lawyers to found the Hong Kong Institute of Legal Translation.
In recognition of her contributions to the law and society, the Hong Kong University conferred her the degree of Doctor of Social Sciences honoris causa in 2016.
