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CONFIDENTIAL
If no steps are taken to remedy the situation before
the Prime Minister's visit to Hong Kong in January he
will face questioning on this point.
8. In this situation there are several options. We
double
could decide that the application of the double
criminality rule to the dependent territories is
illogical and abandon it altogether. This/could create
difficulty in this country, if fugitive offenders were
sent back to face trial for offences which public
opinion here does not recognise. But this possibility
of embarrassment is almost totally theoretical. I
understand that your department have only been able to
find one such case of return to a dependent territory
between 1881 and 1967. Godber himself only came here
because his lawyers advised him of the existence of the
double criminality rule. It is the existence of the
rule that creates embarrassment, not its abandonment.
9.
Another possibility would be to examine the list
of dependent territory legislation to which the rule
at present applies and agree upon a schedule of
returnable offences. We have asked the Governors of
the dependent territories to examine their laws and
advise us on this. The list is not likely to be large,
if at least the existing limitation to offences punishable
with 12 months imprisonment is retained, as we believe
it should be. This approach would, however, tend to
highlight Section 10 of the Hong Kong Prevention of
Bribery Ordinance, which the Law Officers would not
welcome.
CONFIDENTIAL
/10.