· 1 ·
Passage of CFA Bill ensures continuity in legal system
The passage of the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) Bill in the Legislative Council yesterday will ensure that the CFA would be closely modelled on the Privy Council so that there would be continuity in the system with which Hong Kong is familiar, the Solicitor General, Mr Daniel Fung QC, said today (Thursday).
Speaking at a luncheon meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce, Mr Fung said the court could also be established in such a way that there would be no damaging judicial vacuum i.e. a period when Hong Kong would have no ultimate court of appeal.
Mr Fung pointed out that subject to the provisions of the Basic Law, the court would have the same jurisdiction and powers as the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and that it would be established on July 1, 1997.
He said the importance of the ultimate appellate court at the apex of Hong Kong's judicial system could not be overestimated.
"In addition to providing the final avenue of appeal to litigants seeking justice, under Hong Kong's common law system, the court gives rulings that establish and clarify principles of law which are binding on the courts below.
"Questions of great constitutional importance, including issues arising under the Bill of Rights Ordinance and (in due course) the Basic Law, will be determined by the Court of Final Appeal," Mr Fung said.
He noted that the end of appeals to Judicial committee of the Privy Council in London and the establishment of a Court of Final Appeal not in Beijing but in Hong Kong, together with the preservation of the common law and the continued reference to case precedent from other common law jurisdictions, was by far the most momentous of all the manifestations of a high degree of autonomy for the future Special Administrative Region.
He added: "No other country in the world has ever experimented with such a decentralised system.
-
"Even such great federal states as the USA, India or Australia have all operated under a homogeneous legal system the common law and a single judicial mechanism for resolution of disputes between individual and state and between state and federation, namely, a Supreme Court.
I
!