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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 14 March 1984
(b) subject the Government of the territory to the jurisdiction of the ordery
courts
(c) enable the ordinary citizen to question the executive acts of the Government before the ordinary courts in so far as they affect his person or his property, and
(d) safeguard the independence of our Judiciary and of our legal profession.
In that speech, I said also that I thought our system could withstand the shock of losing the final recourse of appeal to the Judicial Committee in London, but I did not think we could ever withstand the shock of having the decisions of the courts of Hong Kong subject to appeal in Peking.
Should it be the case that appeals to the Judicial Committee will be discontinued after 1997, there should, I submit, be compensating provisions for our judicial system which would both demonstrate its independence and enable it to draw from the well spring of the Common Law. I would suggest for consideration a system of secondments from the English Bench to the Court of Appeal in Hong Kong. These would be short secondments and renewed from time to time, with the judges so seconded sitting as members of the Hong Kong Court of Appeal. This should go a long way towards allaying fears about the quality or partiality of our judicial decisions after 1997.
I would like to offer one further thought about the arrangements for our future. We have a population now of some 5.3 m people and by 1997 the figure will be correspondingly higher. Of our present population, some 60% are British by birth or naturalization and since the passing of the Nationality Act in England in 1981 have the status of British Dependent Territories Citizens. These people do not have the right of abode in England but they are British Nationals and are entitled to the protection of Her Majesty's Government. It would be the gravest injustice and an abdication of responsibility if Her Majesty's Government were to write off these people by the signing of a treaty. Whatever happens after 1997, I submit that the British Government must retain responsibility for these people.
On the assumption that Hong Kong will not then be a dependent territory, some new class of citizenship must be devised for them, which would preserve their national status and rights. It is the continued link that is essential. These people should have the assurance of Her Majesty's Government that, should they find life in Hong Kong after 1997 intolerable or even below their reasonable expectations, they would be able to leave Hong Kong and settle abroad with assistance from Her Majesty's Government. It is not necessary to define now the form of that assistance, but the fact that it will be there will be of incalculable value. It provides an option, and in the final analysis because there exists and option, the prospects of an acceptable solution for the future administration of Hong Kong will be greatly enhanced, and that option ought itself to operate as a built-in safeguard against arbitrary change.