Legal system of Macau

[1] The apex of the legal system is the Basic Law of the Macau SAR, a Chinese law approved in accordance with and due to the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau (an international treaty that is officially deposited at the UN) and with article 31 of the Constitution of the PRC.

The legal system of Macau was not substantially modified in 1999, as a result of the transfer of power from Portugal to the PRC, given that there is a principle of continuity of the pre-existing legal system, according to which all sources in force prior to the transfer of sovereignty continued to apply, with some minor exceptions that were specified in December 1999.

The courts of the Macau SAR are structured in three levels and have final power of adjudication, except in very narrow areas.

The Commercial Code has been translated into English and is freely available in the website of the Macau Official Printing House (see link below).

The Public Prosecutions Office (檢察院; Ministério Público) is the judicial authority of Macau.

Reuters stated in 2018 that according to "experts", "the government was increasingly hiring only Chinese for jobs as lawyers, advisers and jurists.