C. Ms Major, HKD (w/o encs)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
308
1 Bole
Telephone XX
071-270 3381
FAX
071-930 2061
Your reference
P Dykes Esq
Assistant Solicitor General Attorney General's Chambers 4/F High Block
i HKD 241/i
Queensway Government Offices 66 Queensway, HONG KONG
Our reference
Date
17 SEP 1990
RY
Action Taker.
14 September 1990
Dear Mr Dykes
287
89
YOUR TELNOS 2494 AND 2583: BILL OF RIGHTS: RIGHT TO FREE LEGAL AID
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request for materials and relating to Article 14(3)(d) of the ICCPR and Article 6(2)(c) of the ECHR.
1.
ICCPR Article 14 (3) (d) -
2.
Our researches have unfortunately not unearthed much useful material either on the meaning of "where the interests of justice so require" or of "if he does not have sufficient means to pay for it". There is little Human Rights Committee case law on these points. I enclose, for what it is worth, the one case I have found, No.158/1983, where the Committee's view was that the applicant had failed to show that the "interests of justice" in his particular case required the free assistance of a lawyer. guidance is given on when it would be required.
No
3. I regret that we do not appear to have any material readily to hand on the implementation of Article 14 (3) (d) in other jurisdictions, and suggest that the easiest way to obtain it would be to request Posts in selected jurisdictions to make enquiries. Our Library and Records Department has collections of legislation of Commonwealth countries and dependent territories, and I have made enquiries as to the extent of legislation they have concerning legal aid. It is far too bulky to send, but if you are interested in this source I could arrange for it to be made available for you to look through next time you are in London.
4.
As you know, on ratification of the Covenant, the UK reserved the right not to apply or not to apply in full the guarantee of free legal assistance in Article 14 (3) (d) in so far as the shortage of legal practitioners renders the application of this guarantee impossible in the Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, the Pitcairn Islands Group and St Helena and Dependencies. Information as to the extent of legal aid provision in those territories may be of some value as negative examples of systems which clearly fall below Covenant standards. of particular interest in this context might be the Cayman Islands,
GENABO