Ms Brooks Legal Advisers
RECEN
CONFIDENTIAL
HICC 37017
1. MAI 1993
DISK C INDEX
PA
Reference
OTRY
ра
ADAPTATION OF LAWS: CROWN IN RELATION TO LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
3
How
daft!
A Typical prace of Wilsonism
1. I attach Hong Kong telno 182 on the above subject. Our comments on this exercise (FCO telno 1667) have prompted Hong Kong to review their approach to the adaptation exercise. In the meantime they have sent us the working party report from last July which addressed these issues.
2. The working party report clarifies Hong Kong's thinking on the adaptation of laws which refer to the Crown. It also explains one key point which was not properly explained in Hong Kong's draft discussion paper (Hong Kong telno 2605). The discussion paper stated that a provision would be inserted in the amending legislation to the effect that references to Hong Kong Government in relation to land and natural resources did not mean that the land and natural resources were the property of HKG (para 7). We pointed out that this did not make much sense before 1997. It seems from the working party report (para 7) that Hong Kong intended that this provision would be to the effect that such references should be taken to mean that the land and natural resources were the property not of the Government but of the Crown. This reference to "the Crown" would then be changed to refer to "the State" on the stroke of midnight.
3.
This makes things clearer. But it seems as if Hong Kong, in order to enable themselves to remove references to the Crown before 1997, are intending to insert a reference to the Crown which will have to be removed in 1997.
4. Their principal reason for acting now rather than in 1997 seems to be the fear that there might be pressure from China to I replace "the Crown" with "the State" throughout the relevant Evidence legislation, "which would be legally incorrect and also
for this? politically sensitive" (para 5 of working party report); and which presumably would weaken the legal and constitutional position of the HKSARG. You are better placed to judge whether or not this is a real fear. If it is not, I can see no real argument against our suggestion that this part of the adaptation exercise would be best dealt with as part of the stroke of midnight package.
5.
As Hong Kong are currently reviewing the adaptation exercise, now would seem to be a good time to feed in our ideas on the best approach.
CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL