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ExCo endorses amendment to draft CFA Bill
The Government issued the following statement today (Tuesday):
"The Executive Council has agreed that the draft Court of Final Appeal (CFA) Bill should be amended to take into account the principled suggestions put forward by the Preliminary Working Committee (PWC) Political Affairs Sub-group as far as practicable.
"The Government has noted from media reports that the PWC Sub-group made a number of principled suggestions on eight aspects of the setting up of the CFA in Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, as part of the Chinese side's contingency plan in case the CFA is not set up before July 1, 1997.
"We do not see the need for such a contingency plan. Both the British and Chinese sides have repeatedly reaffirmed their commitment to implement the agreement reached at the Joint Liaison Group (JLG) in September 1991 on the establishment of the CFA before July 1, 1997. The Chinese side's commitment has been reiterated publicly by senior Chinese officials, including the Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Mr Lu Ping.
"Nevertheless, the Government has studied the PWC Sub-group's principled suggestions as published in the media. Apart from provisions that come into effect only on July 1, 1997, these are not fundamentally different from the provisions of the draft CFA Bill which we handed to the Chinese side in May 1994.
"The Executive Council has agreed that the CFA Bill should be amended to take into account most of PWC Sub- group's principled suggestions. The only exceptions are two suggestions which appear to us to be inconsistent with the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, and the PWC Sub-group's proposal on the definition of 'Acts of State'.
"Both the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law provide that judges of the courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be appointed by the Chief Executive in accordance with the recommendation of an independent commission composed of local judges, persons from the legal profession and eminent persons from other sectors.
"However, the PWC Sub-group suggested that the Chief Executive could chair the meeting of the independent commission for the selection of the Chief Justice. In our view, this suggestion would breach the Joint Declaration and Basic Law, because the 'independent commission' can scarcely be considered independent if it is chaired by the Chief Executive (the Governor during the pre July 1, 1997 period).