1
HKC 031/24
нкс
Mr Marshall HKD
pa
9
From:
Miss S Brooks
Legal Counsellor
Date:
26 November 1992
POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC MULTILATERAL TREATIES APPLIED TO HONG
S
KONG
1.
나
I refer to your minutes of 18 and 20 November. I decided the best way of replying to Ms Foakes' letter to you and commenting on the draft discussion papers for the Chinese was to reply myself at some length to Mr Edwards. I attach a copy
of my letter to Mr Edwards to this minute together with the original letter. If you have no objections to anything in my reply to Mr Edwards, I would be most grateful if you would be kind enough to ensure that it is faxed to Mr Edwards at the International Law Division. The fax number is 877-2130.
2. I think the concerns you have raised in your two minutes are dealt with in my reply apart from two matters. One is the question about what Hong Kong intend to do regarding item 15.21. This is the Constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organisation 1945. I seem to recall that this was discussed with the Chinese when the first part of the IRO sub-group exercise was begun, namely the discussion of international organisations. Please check on your back papers whether this matter has already been discussed with the Chinese. There should be JLG records or a Sub-Group paper about the FAO if it has been discussed. If it has been discussed already, I suggest you then confirm with Hong Kong that they will not be discussing it. If you find nothing, I suggest you ask them what they intend to do about the Constitution.
3.
The second matter you raise is about the continuance of the UK Declaration regarding the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in relation to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. I think that it is very unlikely that the Chinese would accept its continuance. Accordingly, I suggest that the sentence in paragraph 16 in the paper on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties is included, but with an additional sentence to the effect that it is not proposed that the Declaration would be continued after 1997.
You may wish to cover the two matters referred to above in a short telegram to Hong Kong.
4.
Shelagh Brooks
Shelagh Brooks