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4.
The Governor appointed Sir Alastair Blair-Kerr, then
the Senior Puisne Judge in Hong Kong, to investigate the
circumstances of Mr Godber's departure. Sir Alastair was also
asked to propose further measures to combat corruption. In his
report Sir Alastair recommended, among other things, that HMG should
be asked to amend the Fugitive Offenders Act so that Mr Godber and
any others like him, could be returned to face trial in the
Dependent Territories, even if the offences concerned were not known
to UK law.
5.
It was not at the time thought possible to amend
the Act to allow the return of Mr Godber to Hong Kong, since this
would have involved retrospective legislation. The Governor
accepted this decision. But, with our agreement, he did not tell
anyone of it, in advance of consideration of the wider question of
a possible non-retrospective change in the law.
6.
The arguments for such a general change are that
this so-called double-criminality rule is a relatively new
provision, introduced in the 1967 Act because laws in the
independent Commonwealth were increasingly diverging from English
law. The Dependent Territories were included largely for the sake
of completeness. But it can be argued that, where we approve the
law, (as we do in a negative sense in those colonies where there
is a power of disallowance, and more positively in Hong Kong, where
there is an official majority in Legislative Council) it is illogical
to frustrate its operation by refusing to send back an offender
from the UK to stand trial. A change would put the Dependent
Territories back in the pre-1967 position and on a footing with,
for example, the Channel Islands, where return is automatic, but where
/the laws
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