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From Law Officer (international Law)

Ref.

IL/TRE/55/1...

URGENT

To Secretary for Constitutional.....

Affairs

Your Ref... in..

...in.....

Tel. No.

8.10 24.03.

....

CONQVender. 144

dated

Hong Kong/US Bilateral Agreements

As you may know, the US State Department asked me to stay on for a day after the end of our first round of negotiations on IPPAs (see Washington telno 27 to Hong Kong) to discuss a number of legal and tactical problems that have occurred to them since we started our negotiations on extradition. I met with six State Department legal advisers, two people from the relevant geographical departments in State, plus a Justice Department lawyer on Monday 2 November. We had two sessions, each lasting over two hours.

2.

The US, if it is going to get our bilateral treaties on extradition, IPPA and on any other subject through the Senate (they will require the Senate's advice and consent), is going to need to deal with the following four matters (and there may be more as they continue their study of what they called a unique situation):

(i) The US will need to be able to demonstrate by some tangible means that the PRC has indicated that the bilateral agreement concerned may continue in effect after 30 June 1997;

(ii) What (if any) "residual" rights will be vested in

the PRC under the bilaterals after (or the UK before) 1997?

(iii) So far as a HK/US extradition treaty is concerned,

in what cases precisely will the PRC instruct the HKSAR Chief Executive not to return a fugitive, if his return would otherwise be in accordance with the treaty?

(LV) Again in the context of extradition, in what

circumstances precisely will the HKSAR Government refuse to return fugitives who are Chinese nationals?

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