CODE 18-77
RESTRICTED
HKC 000/3
- 7 UN 1992
!CM
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Reference
This Cothil
сокі for # 1997
B
general policy file pse
ли
29/
Miss Brooks,
Legal Adviser
IN...
AMENDMENT OF THE BASIC LAW
LAST PADER
advic
1. You kindly gave Dr Harkin some oral advice on Lu Ping's statement, reported in Hong Kong telno 1406, that as there is not yet an SAR legislative or an SAR Chief Executive it is "totally impossible" to change the Basic Law. I understand that you commented that this was right: BL 159 could not operate until the BL comes into effect; and that you added that the only course of action would be a political discussion with the Chinese as to whether they would amend the BL.
2.
We have in fact been waiting for advice from Ms Barrett for some time on the possibility of BL amendment before 1997. I hope we can agree what the position is within the next few weeks, before the Governor-designate leaves for Hong Kong.
3. On the face of it, whatever Lu Ping may say, it would be open to the National People's Congress to enact amendments to the BL and its Annexes before 1 July 1997 and for the President of the PRC to promulgate them. It would also be possible for the NPC to adopt a new "Decision" on the method for the formation of the first Government and the first Legislative Council of the SAR. This seems to be a matter of political will rather than law. It would be for the NPC to decide whether some prior consultative process with Hong Kong people would be desirable.
4.
However, we have wondered whether there is some other Chinese legal angle, eg some sense in which the NPC can entrench a piece of legislation so that it cannot
subsequently be amended save as provided in that legislation. Do you have any views on this please?
5.
There is of course a separate political question about possible disadvantages of setting a precedent for BL amendment, before or after 1997. Perhaps Dr Harkin could start thinking of ways in which the Chinese might be tempted to amend the BL in a way hostile to our objectives or
NC1ACH SLM
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