Annex E
Summary of Press Reports on the Setting Up of the Court of Final Appeal
(June 2 to 30, 1993)
The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) became a topical issue in the early part of the month following a HK Economic Journal report (7.6) that linked it with the Sino-British talks on the 1994/95 electoral arrangements. There was speculation that the Executive Council would discuss the issue. While denying that Exco had discussed the subject, a Government spokesman (8.6) confirmed that legislation on the CFA based on the Sino-British agreement was being drafted and would take some months to complete. The CFA was the subject of a debate at the City Forum on June 13.
People commenting on the subject included Chinese officials, the Governor, Exco and Legco Members, various political groups as well as lawyers and a judge. There were several editorials and a number of commentaries. While the general belief was that the sooner the CFA was set up, the better it would be, there were reservations, especially among lawyers, about its establishment according to the JLG agreement's restriction on having only one overseas judge. The Chinese side insisted that there was no way that the Sino-British agreement on the CFA could be amended.
Development and Sources
The Economic Journal (7.6) said it had learnt that the Chinese side had based its criticism of the British side being perfidious on the fact that the latter had not implemented the JLG agreement on the CFA. While finding it difficult to refute this accusation, the British side believed that it would greatly help the talks if the Government could persuade Legco to accept the agreement. The paper said it was believed that the time was right now to raise the CFA issue as both legislators and legal circles had realised the importance of having the CFA in place before 1997.
While an ATV report on (7.6) and a number of papers on (8.6) noted that the Government was consulting legal circles on the issue, the United Daily quoted a Government source as saying that now was the right time to raise the issue with the Chinese side in view of relaxed Sino-British relations. The paper said the relevant legislation would be drawn up and presented to Legco when the two sides came close on matters of principle. The source said there were a number of things, such as the discrepancies between the JD and the BL on which matters would be outside the CFA's jurisdiction, that the two sides had to sort out to avoid future arguments. The HK Daily News quoted sources close to the British side as saying that it was vital to the maintenance of HK's judicial independence to set up the CFA before 1997.
The papers on (9.6) quoted Government spokesman Mike Hanson as saying that the CFA legislation being drafted would be based on the JLG agreement that the court was to have only one overseas judge. Ming Pao quoted people in the know as saying that a solution to the controversy would be to draft the legislation according to the JLG agreement and submit it to Legco when the time was ripe, most probably in 1994-95. Some papers said that the Government had chosen to bring up the issue at this time in view of the