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Professor Hood Phillips (Constitutional and Administrative Law, 5th Ed., 1973, page 233) states :
"Prerogative powers nowadays are mainly of importance in relation
to the Civil Service, the armed forces, Colonial administration,
Commonwealth relations and foreign affairs".
Prerogative Powers
The exact nature of the Royal Prerogative is not an easy thing to
grasp. It has been described as the residue of Royal Authority left over
from a time before the Sovereign's power was effectually controlled by law.
Today the prerogative is limited by law, in the sense that the Sovereign can
claim no prerogative contrary to agra Carta, or any other statute, or to
the liberties of the subject. The Royal Prerogative has always controlled
the evolution of the Civil Service, such authority resting on the legal
fiction that all Civil Servants form part of the personal staff of the Sovereign, once, no doubt, true in fact.
The Application of Prerogative Powers to Hong Kong
Hong Kong was acquired by cession of the Emperor of China by the
Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Kowloon was ceded and annexed to the Colony in
1880, and the New Territories leased in 1898 for 99 years on terms that the
lands leased were treated as part and parcel of the Colony. In constitutional
theory, then, Hong Kong is a ceded territory. The Colony was therefore acquired
under the prerogative to make treaties of war and peace. (Roberts-ray, Commonwealth and Colonial Law, (1966) at p. 150
!
"In a ceded Colony the Crown, by virtue of its prerogative, has
full power to establish such executive, legislative, and judicial
arrangements as the Crown thinks fit, and generally, to act both
executively and legislatively, provided the provisions made by
the Crown do not contravene any Act of Parliament extending to
the Colony or to all British possessions. The Crown's legislative
and constituent powers are exercisable by Order in Council, Letters
Patent, or Proclamation".
(Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol. 6, Commonwealth & Dependencies, para. 1029)
The general rule is that prerogatives cannot be parted with by the Crown except
by express statutory authority. However, prerogatives relating to public
government and the right of pardoning offences are usually delegated to the
Governors of Overseas Territories. In conquered and ceded Colonies, the
delegation is so effective that the power to legislate is lost by the Sovereign if it is not reserved. (Campbell v. Hall (1774) 1 Cowp. 204.)