DSR 11 (Revised Sept 85)
DRAFT: minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note
FROM:
MR EGGAR
DEPARTMENT:
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
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Reference
VB1BCC
TEL. NO:
Your Reference
ROOM NO:
TO:
THE EARL OF WINCHILSEA AND
NOTTINGHAM
SUBJECT:
Copies to:
PADDY ASHDOWN, MP
MICHAEL MEADOWCROFT
In Confidence
Thank you for your letter of 10 August to Simon
Glenarthur, who is currently on holiday. The issues you
raise are complex. But, so far as I understand correctly
your concerns, I believe I can offer you reassurance on a
number of important points.
First, after 1997 Hong Kong, as a Special
Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC, will have a
separate legal system from that of the rest of the PRC.
It will retain its own laws and an independent judiciary
The
and prosecuting authority. The Sino-British Joint
Declaration is absolutely explicit in this respect.
courts of the SAR will be obliged to decide cases in
accordance with the SAR's laws. In short, the Hong Kong
SAR will be a separate juridical system.
Enclosures flag(s)...
You are concerned at the possibility that a
fugitive offender from Hong Kong, returned before 1997 to
the territory under the Fugitive Offenders Act 1967, may
become subject to the criminal code of the PRC from that