Mr Stone
HKA 233/1
216
6/4 217
1.
HMOCS/JUDGES: Your minute of 2nd April
I do not think there are difficulties of the kind canvassed in the second paragraph of you minute of 14th February to Miss Brooks.
2.
The position is as follows:
(a) Judges, like other public servants, (and although they may not be civil servants, judges are undoubtedly in the public service)
the public service) hold office in the service of the Crown in right of the government of Hong Kong, being appointed pursuant to the power set out in Article XIV of the Letters Patent.
(b) On 1st July 1997, the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Crown over Hong Kong will come to an end.
The Letters Patent will need to be revoked and, on their revocation, the service of the Crown in Hong Kong and the Government of Hong Kong as established by and in accordance with the Letters Patent will cease to exist. The judicial and other public offices established pursuant to the Letters Patent fall with the Letters Patent.
The existing offices of the present office holders will disappear.
It is
is not merely a question of the Secretary of State relinquishing his responsibilities;
the existing jobs will disappear. (This applies to all offices which derive from Article XIV, not only those held by members of HMOCS)
The
The Basic Law
(c) The Basic Law provides for a new government for Hồng Kong,
(Unlike in certain cases where dependent territories obtained independence, the Government of the SAR will not be the government of the former colony with increased powers and functions, it will be a new creature). offices, judicial and other, established by the Basic Law will also be new offices. provides that, with certain exceptions where Chinese nationality or the absence of a right of abode is a necessary qualification, judges and other public servants "may all remain in employment", but this is not a unilateral transfer by the sucessor government; it is, in effect, a "statutory" offer of employment, which can be taken up or refused (expressly or by
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