| Change log entry 64943 | |
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| Processed by: | richwarm (2018-01-08 02:27:03 UTC) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 61544 - submitted by 'sl89' >> Basic Law, in the sense it is meant to be defined in the dictionary (essentially a constitution by another name) is usually written with the first letters capitalized. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Basic_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau_Basic_Law Full text of the Basic Law http://www.umac.mo/basiclaw/english/main.html http://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/basiclawtext/index.html Yuen and Communist Party officials in Beijing argued that parts of the station would be legally regarded as "mainland Chinese territory", so the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which explicitly says national laws don't apply in Hong Kong, would not be applicable. https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/01/05/world/asia/05reuters-hongkong-politics.html That, at least, seemed to be the intention driving Hong Kong’s foundational legal text, the Basic Law. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/opinion/hong-kong-china.html The Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, was promulgated in this tense environment in 1990. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/29/20-years-ago-china-promised-a-1-country-2-systems-deal-for-hong-kong-that-wasnt-to-be/?utm_term=.71b0c7595a64 When young people formed the political party Demosisto and won a seat in the Legislative Council, the Chinese government reinterpreted the Basic Law to have the candidate disqualified. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/08/18/as-you-read-this-hong-kong-has-locked-one-of-us-away/?utm_term=.2f97bdad9f26 ----------------------------------------- Editor: It needs to be capitalized when it's a proper noun. That is, when it refers to a specific basic law. In such cases, "Basic Law" is an abbreviation for terms such as - Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany - Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China In all your examples it's a proper noun, so caps are appropriate. But the CC-CEDICT entry is for the generic "basic law" (which is why the pinyin is also lowercase). Thus, you write "Constitution" when referring to the United States Constitution, for example, as in "Altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification." But you write it in lowercase ("constitution") when making a generic reference, as in "A constitution is a set of rules by which a country or state is run." Examples of generic usage of "basic law": 1) "The Arctic needs a basic law" http://www.forumarctic.ru/eng/conf2015/press-center/news-digest/conference-news/The_Arctic_needs_a_basic_law/ 2) 但是，原運為原住民基本法已經催生了二十年，為什麼卻依然沒有結果？ "Nevertheless, for twenty years indigenous activists have already been pushing for a basic law on indigenous people; why have there still been no results?" (from "Taiwan Panorama" magazine) 3) "In the early Republican era, on the surface all the political figures were talking about creating a constitutional system or drafting a basic law, ..." (ibid.) 4) The term basic law is used in some places as an alternative to "constitution", [...] The Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, namely Hong Kong and Macau, have basic laws as their constitutional documents. [...] List of basic laws: - Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany - Hong Kong Basic Law [...] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_law 5) [The the Seventeen-Article Constitution established by Prince Shōtoku in 604 AD] "thus established the ideal of a centralized state presided over by a single ruler, and it provided a kind of basic law of the nation." [Encyclopedia Britannica article "Japan"] 5) ABC dictionary: 基本法 jībẹ̌nfǎ n. basic law (Note that ABC takes particular care with Pinyin orthography, including capitalization.) 6) KEY dictionary: (N) 1 {law} basic law 2 {Hong Kong} (Hong Kong) Basic Law (the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China) 7) New Century: 基本法 jībẹ̌nfǎ (名) basic law: 香港特别行政区基本法 Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region |
| Diff: |
- 基本法 基本法 [ji1 ben3 fa3] /basic law/ # + 基本法 基本法 [ji1 ben3 fa3] /Basic Law/ # Editor: + 基本法 基本法 [ji1 ben3 fa3] /basic law (constitutional document)/ + 香港基本法 香港基本法 [Xiang1 gang3 Ji1 ben3 fa3] /Hong Kong Basic Law (in effect since the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997)/ |