ها می با
February 1993
9. Z
Rt Hon The Lord Shawcross GBE QC
House of Lords
London SW1A OPW
Thank you for your letter of 28 January. It was good to see you at the Chatham House meeting.
You recognise the problem of securing the presence of an
alleged offender before an international court might be
-empowered to issue Advisory or Declaratory Opinions. Although
J Advisory Opinions by the ICJ have an important role to play in
a
-relation to certain international situations confronting the
but UN, LI do not see any role for them in relation to individual
0420 criminal responsibility. Similarly I would of trials in absentia.
the
uld not be in favour
would
On your point about Hong Kong, the position is that I briefed the Chinese Foreign Minister, in detail, on the constitutional
elements of the Governor's speech in late September, that is
two weeks before the speech was made. There were no discussions with the Chinese before that on the Governor's
specific proposals, which he was developing over the summer in
Howerte Hong Kong. But we had raised with them many times our belief that there should be a change in the Basic Law to increase the
The Chinese had alsges number of directly-elected seats. And they had told us of
their concerns that the Governor should not propose an increase in the(directly-elected seats in Legce, and should not appoint liberal members of LegCo onto the Executive Council The Governor took both points into account in framing his proposals.
LEGCO'S
PS/shawcross5.2/NJH