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8. Article 67 (4) of the Chinese constitution provides for the NPC Standing Committee to interpret "statutes" of which the Basic Law is presumably one. However, given the JD provision quoted in para 7 above, it will be necessary to ensure that the judicial authority of the SAR'S courts is fully preserved. For this reason, it would be
important to
to ensure that an interpretation of the Basic Law by the NPC Standing Committee, in accordance with Article 67(4), should be of a legislative, rather than a judicial nature, that is to say that
it should only take prospective effect.
This could be made clear,
for example, in a Basic Law provision. In consequence, the SAR's
courts would thereafter be
be bound by that interpretation since it
would have the force of an amendment to the Basic Law regardless of
the form it took.
9.
areas
In connection with the power of the SAR's courts in interpreting
the Basic Law, some people suggested that the SAR's courts should
have no
to interpret the Basic Law in
of respect
outside the SAR's autonomy. Such a suggestion presumably has regard primarily to the provision in Annex
Section I of the Joint
powers
Declaration:
I
10.
"Except for foreign and defence affairs which are the responsibilities of the CPG, the HK SAR shall be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial powers, including that of final adjudication."
The situation is, however, likely to be more complex. In
exercising their
their judicial powers, the SAR's courts will need to decide cases in accordance with the laws of Hong Kong, which are the Basic Law, and the laws previously in force and laws enacted by the SAR legislature. An issue relating to the Basic Law could arise in the course of a civil dispute between two parties which are affected
executive or by the
In such consequences of
legislative acts.
it may be necessary
for the court
whether to decide
executive
legislative act or
has strayed into foreign or defence matters, and thus infringed the Basic Law and acted ultra vires. such circumstances, if the SAR's courts are unable to interpret the relevant parts of the Basic Law (independently) the case could well
case
а
an SAR
In
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