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Effect of Relinquishment of Sovereignty
11. If the United Kingdom were to continue to administer
Hong Kong as a 'caretaker-under a 'management contract'
with the PRC, it would be necessary to maintain the
essential features of the present system.
Possible Changes
12. It would be possible to give a more 'autonomous'
character to the courts in various ways:-
a) they need not formally be 'Her Majesty's
courts';
b) local machinery for the appointment and
removal of judges and magistrates could be
established, eg by means of a suitably-
constituted judicial service commission, provided that it secured the appointment of
suitable and qualified persons and ensured
the independence and impartiality of the
judiciary (there has already been a considerable devolution in practice over
the selection of candidates to the local
authorities and a greater measure of local autonomy would be consistent with recent
developments);
c)
it would be possible to abolish appeals to
the Judicial Committee in London. Many
former United Kingdom dependencies have on
independence maintained the appellate jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee and some independent members of the Commonwealth still do so, even when not (or no longer) part of Her Majesty's dominions. Examples are Malaysia, which has its own monarchy, and Singapore, The Gambia and Trinidad and
/Tobago
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