?
Private Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
HONG KONG DEATH SENTENCE: TSOI
(59
・Secretary of State.
ge. I think the
in out"
1. At the meeting this morning the Secretary of State enquired whether there was any way in which we could refer the matter to the Privy Council.
2. I have discussed the question with Mr Mills, the Registrar to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He confirmed the preliminary view expressed with the Secretary of State that there was no way in which an appeal could be taken to the Privy Council except in the name of and with the consent of Mr Tsoi. It would be possible for him to be reminded of his right to seek leave to appeal to the Privy Council and, insofar as the Privy Council's own rules about appeals in forma pauperis do not cover all expenses involved, it is open to HMG (or the Hong Kong Government) to undertake to pay those additional expenses. (The short point, is that while the Privy Council's rules provide for costs of the actual
certain appeal itself to be borne otherwise than by the appellant, those rules do not apply to the application for leave to appeal.)
3. Apart from an actual appeal against the judgement of the courts in Hong Kong, it would appear only possible for the matter to be referred to the Judicial Committee under Section 4 of the Judicial Committee Act 1833. This provides that Her Majesty may refer to the Judicial Committee any matters whatsoever as Her Majesty shall think fit. While this is a theoretical possibility in this case, I very much doubt whether it would be appropriate to use this power to refer the matter to the Privy Council.
Because it has only been used
very rarely legal
A
issues,
no such issue
~~jor constitutional wherem there is
cafe
this
Ashwaths
A D Watts
Legal Counsellor W 44/5
H
915.
8 May 1973
cc Sir Duncan Watson
Sir Vincent Evans
Mr Crowson (Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept)
CONFIDENTIAL