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the members of professional, commercial or other special interest groups. At present, 18 of the members of the Legislative Council are elected by adult suffrage in geographical constitutencies, but a further 21 members are elected by functional constituencies, in which only about 3 per cent of the population are entitled to vote. The Report proposes that the Legislative Council due to be elected in 1995 should consist solely of members elected from geographic constituencies on a democratic franchise, as should the Legislature of the SAR to be elected after 1997.
(3)
The Executive (Chapter VIII)
expresses
concern
The Report criticises the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law for failing to require that the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR should be democratically elected by and democratically accountable to the people of Hong Kong.
The Report that
will the proposed structure reproduce the existing structure, with a Chief Executive appointed by Beijing replacing a Governor appointed by London. The Report also concludes that the provisions of the Basic Law relating to the accountability of the Executive are confusing and inadequate.
(4) The Judiciary (Chapters IX and X)
The Report expresses great concern over the position of the judiciary. In particular, the Report objects to the provisions of the Basic Law which reserve to the National People's Congress of the PRC (rather than to the courts of Hong Kong) the power to interpret the Basic Law and to decide whether existing laws of Hong Kong contravene it.
concludes
The Report
that the maintenance of an independent judiciary after 1997 is of the highest importance both for the preservation of business confidence and for the protection of human rights. There is an urgent need to increase the recruitment of local lawyers to the bench and reduce the dependence on expatriate judges. The Report concludes that the agreement recently arrived at between the UK and the PRC (through their Joint Liaison Group) on the composition of
of the Court of Final Appeal is not in accordance with the Joint Declaration and the Basic
Law.