HKK 040/53
RECEIVEL
DES
INDEX
- 4 UCT 1984
Sir P Cradock JAK Cradock
Private Secretary
Action T...
LEGISLATION ON HONG KONG
FROM: A C GALSWORTHY,
DATE: 3 October 1984
CC:
PS/Mr Luce
HKD
PS/PUS
Sir J Freeland
Mr Burrows, Legal Advisers
Parliamentary Unit
1.
I submit the first draft of a paper for Cabinet Committee
the legislation required before the Hong Kong Agreement can be
ratified.
2.
There are essentially two points to be resolved on the
content of the Bill.
13
on
i) Should the transfer of sovereignty in 1997 be effected
immediately, or by subsequent Order-in-Council?
ii) Should provision be made for subordinate legislation at a
later stage to deal with the nationality problems?
A secondary point which needs to be decided is whether the paper
should be put to OD(K), or directly to the Queen's Speech and
Legislation Committee (QL).
3. On the transfer of sovereignty the draft paper comes down on
the side of legislation to effect now a transfer to take
take place in
1997 rather than provision for a later Order in Council. This is
based on the argument of our Legal Advisers that there would be
parliamentary pressure to make a later Order-in-Council subject to either positive or negative Parliamentary approval. This would have to be resisted, since, if an Order were subject to parliamentary
procedures, it would prevent us ratifying the agreement. This
situation is more likely to arise if we envisage such an Order in
Order
Council
CONFIDENTIAL
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