Governor under section 3". HKG appear to have omitted to adapt the reference to the Governor in section 3.
6.
I am not convinced however that the correct solution is simply to replace "Governor" in section 3 with "Chief Executive". Both section 2 and section 3 refer to a day which has already been appointed (7 October 1971).
It would appear
to me to make more sense to replace the definition of "appointed day" in section 2 with a reference to 7 October 1971. Or, better still, all references in the text to the "appointed day" could be replaced by the actual date and the definition could be deleted. I would also suggest that section 3 be deleted.
Paper no 3
Legitimacy Ordinance
7. I am puzzled by para 4 (c) of the paper since there is no reference in section 2 of the copy of the ordinance which I have to "Supreme Court". "Court" is defined as the High Court or District Court. Please query this.
Adoption Ordinance
8.
In para 6(a), I would suggest that a list of jurisdictions should be specified here, otherwise it is unclear whether the proposal is to list the names of Commonwealth countries plus USA, or whether it is proposed to make a substantive change to the jurisdictions referred to. If it has not yet been decided what to include in the list, it might be better to say that this will be a matter for later consultation.
Defamation Ordinance
9. There is a manuscript note in the margin of para 4 of the paper querying whether a replacement is needed for the definition of "legislature" which it is proposed to delete. The answer is no, because the term "legislature" only appears in para 1 of part 1 of the Schedule, which is to be deleted (see para 4 (a) of the paper). That provision concerns Commonwealth legislatures, and the parts of the Ordinance which concern the Legislative Council of Hong Kong refer to it by name.
10.
When conveying our queries to HKG, please do so tentatively, in case any of the copies of the legislation supplied to me by our Library is not up to date. Since it comes from the Loose-leaf edition published by the Government Printer all amendments should be incorporated; but it would be somewhat surprising if HKG had misread their own legislation.
11. I trust the above fully answers your questions, but if you require further advice please let me know.
JM Batt
Jill Barrett