HKD 010/1
FROM: P F Ricketts
PS/Mr Patten
BASIC DOCUMENTS
73
Hong Kong Department
DATE: 27 April 1992
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cc: Mr Burns
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1.
Mr Patten might find it useful to have the attached
copies of the key documents relating to Hong Kong:
- Letters Patent and Royal Instructions. These are the
Governor's constitutional texts. As such, they lay down the broad framework for governing Hong Kong but do not actually give much flavour of how the practical business of government is actually discharged. They contain some very wide ranging reserve powers for the Governor. Many of these are of course anachronistic: for example, the powers to overrule the advice of ExCo (Royal Instructions X11), to disallow laws passed by LegCo (Letters Patent VIII) and to:
dissolve LegCo (Royal Instructions XXVIIIA). None of these.. powers have been used in modern times;
Standing orders of LegCo;
- The Joint Declaration of 1984; the easiest version to read
is the White Paper format: the attached copy has an
introduction highlighting the main points; although it is
called a draft, it did not change from this version.
attach a pocket-sized edition;
- The Basic Law approved by China's National People's
Congress in 1990 and a commentary on the main points;
KEWAED/1
JRB
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