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This dissertation, "The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: a Study of Its Role, Powers and Functions in Hong Kong's Political System" by Yu, Gu,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: The dissertation assesses the level of autonomy of the Legislative Council (Legco) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and examines how the Legco exercises its legislative power, scrutinizes public finance and checks the executive in Hong Kong's changing political system. After the return of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China, the initiation power of the legislature of the HKSAR receives more extensive restrictions under the Basic Law than the colonial time. The idea of an executive-led system becomes an official statement in Hong Kong's political system, by stressing which the executive intends to strengthen its authority and to achieve its dominance over the legislature. To provide the basic framework for answering the "how" question, this dissertation first assesses the potential of the Legco by structuring indicators for autonomy of the Legco in two dimensions: external environment and internal characteristics. This dissertation argues that the Legco has structured the institutional framework to underpin legislative autonomy, particulary in the aspects of exclusive authority over internal rules and committee autonomy. In the context, despite the restrictions on its initiation power and stricter agenda control by the executive over time, the Legco since 1998 has played a more active role over time and developed a variety of means by which it can make