A
CONFIDENTIAL
THE NATIONALITY PROVISIONS OF THE HONG KONG ACT 1985
A DRAFT ORDER IN COUNCIL
Introduction
The Hong Kong Act 1985 (c.15) received Royal assent on 4 April 1985.
It made provision for the ending of British sovereignty and
jurisdiction over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, in accordance with the
terms of the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong reached
between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the People's
Republic of China (hereafter "The Chinese Government"). Paragraph 2
of the Schedule to the Act conferred power to give effect by Order
in Council to the provisions of the United Kingdom Memorandum
associated with the Joint Declaration.
The purpose of this White
Paper is to present the text of a draft Order in Council, which is
at Annex 1.
h prozedure
2.
During the passage of the Hong Kong Bill Her Majesty's
Government gave two undertakings concerning the Parliamentary
handling of the proposed Order. The first was that it would be made
within a year of the passing of the Bill, subject only to
Parliament's own agreement (Official Report: Volume 71, Number 43,
Column 735; Volume 460, Number 46, Column 484). The second was that
in view of the constitutional significance of the Order it should be
subject to more extended Parliamentary scrutiny than the usual affirmative resolution, allows (Official Report: Volumn 72, Number
56, Column 1069; Volume 460 Number 46, Column 503). It is Her
Majesty's Government's intention to provide time for debates in both
Houses on this White Paper and the annexed draft Order before the draft Order is re-presented for approval by eth House of Parliament
under the affirmative resulution procedure. Her Majesty's
Government will take careful note of points raised in
*Orders to be made by affirmative resolution require Parliament's positive
approval, usually following a 11⁄2 hour debate before they can be made. Under
this procedure an Order cannot be amended, but merely accepted or rejected as
a whole