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May 1993
BY FAX
Ms Ava Chiu
Constitutional Affairs Branch
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG.
LEGISLATION CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW IN RELATION TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS ORDINANCE
1. Thank you for the full list of legislation currently under review in relation to the Bill of Rights Ordinance, which is very useful to have.
2.
We were interested to note that it is considered that there is "no obvious need" to amend the Emergency Regulations Ordinance due to the safeguard provided by Article VII (3) of the Letters Patent. Whilst this may be true before the lapsing of the Letters Patent in 1997, it raises doubts about the effectiveness of legal safeguards after 1997. This is an obvious point and must have been considered in the previous review. We would like to know what factors are being considered by the Attorney-General's Chambers in their re-examination of this Ordinance, and particularly whether they see any conflict between the Emergency Regulations Ordinance and the Bill of Rights. As it was one of the main targets of the recent Article XIX report on freedom of expression, we will need a solid argument if we are to decide to retain the Ordinance unchanged or to make only minor adjustments.
I would be grateful for any further information which you could provide on the above points. Many thanks for your help.
3.
J N Marshall
Hong Kong Department
ce: Miss Barrett, Legal Advices
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