| Legal aid means that the country or the given social community offer free legal service to the person who can not undertake the legal service charge, and maintain the person's legally benefits, in order to realize judicial equity. Comparing to similar concepts can make legal aid more understandable and distinguishable. The theoretical foundation of legal aid is equality and justice. The history of Legal aid is very long, with 500 years old. The history of Hong Kong's legal aid is also long, from the system of Forma Pauperis of 100 years ago.This thesis aims to give an overall view to the legal aid system in Hong Kong. At first, the thesis gave a brief introduction about the background and the development process about the Hong Kong's legal aid system, and then explores the legal aid institutions and the expenditure source. The thesis divides the legal aid institutions into two parts. One belongs to the Hong Kong government, and the other none-government. Accordingly, the thesis studies the content of the legal aid system. Besides, it also gives an introduction of the Bar Free Legal Service Scheme in Hong Kong.In order to attain a deeper understanding of Hong Kong's legal aid system, the thesis compares the Hong Kong's and the UK's legal aid systems from such various aspects, among others, as institution, the expenditure source, the procedure of legal aid, Quality Control system. At last, the thesis touched on the current legal aid system in the mainland of China, with an attempt to learn from Hong Kong and the UK's successful experience. |
