- 13
(b)
(c)
The Commission
the
suggests
that the power of interpreting the Basic Law in its application to Special Administrative Region and the power of deciding whether existing laws contravene the Basic Law should be transferred from the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress to the
local courts
Basic Law).
(see Articles 18, 158 and 160 of the
This recommendation is, of course, based on the argument that the Joint Declaration
provides that Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region courts will have the power of final judgment. But it is important to understand that
that power is only a power to render final judgment in matters where the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region courts have jurisdiction.
It does not confer unrestricted jurisdiction.
These provisions as they stand, however, do leave
some doubt as to how, in practice, they will be
applied but some comfort can be taken from the
comments of Lu Ping in his address to Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce on 26 April 1989 that
the Standing Committee "will restrict itself to
interpreting only the
responsibility of the
provisions which are the
Central Government or the
relationship between the Central Authorities and the Special Administrative Region".
On page 83 the Commission is strongly critical of the Standing Committee's power to decide that the Special Administrative Region is in a state of
emergency and apply national laws. However, no state could be expected to renounce the power to
take steps to defend itself or to deal with
"turmoil" which endangers national unity or
security.