Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
From The Minister of State
The Hon Francis Maude MP
Christopher K Mitchell-Heggs Esq Cabinet Mitchell-Heggs 9 Rue D'Anjou
PARIS
21 August 1989
Dea the Aitchell.
Heggs,
Thank you for your letters of 19 May and 13 June to Sir Geoffrey Howe about the Basic Law, in which you propose the establishment of a Constitutional Court or Committee to interpret the Basic Law.
I was interested in this idea, which, as you may know, appears in broadly similar form as one of the
recommendations in the Report on Hong Kong of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (I enclose a copy of the relevant passage for ease of reference).
As you rightly say, there is already provision for a Committee of the Basic Law in the draft Basic Law (Articles 17, 18, 157 and 158). But the draft says nothing about the role and composition of the Committee. In your letters, you imply that it might be relatively straightforward to build on these Articles to bring about the creation of a Joint Constitutional Court along the
lines you propose. I am not so sure. Much would depend
on the attitude the Chinese might take to the establishment of a body of this nature.
You will also be interested to know that the Basic Law Drafting Committee have put forward proposals to the National People's Congress about the Committee of the Basic Law. I enclose a copy of the relevant text. The terms of the proposal may well be open to further refinement as the consultation process on the Basic Law continues.