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Mr Rifkind: Of course I hear what you say and you are referring to your desire to continue living in Hong Kong. You will know that is not in the gift of the United Kingdom Government to make some unilateral statement and therefore these are matters which can be discussed and have to be resolved with those who will have the power after '97 to determine the situation. We can seek to carry out all the obligations, all the commitments that we have ourselves undertaken and which we have the power to implement. On other matters we can make representations on behalf of people like yourself to ensure that we get the clarity and the consistency and the outcome that you wish to see. But we can only give guarantees for matters for which we ourselves have the ultimate decision making power. It would be unreasonable for you to expect us to do more than that. It would be impossible for us to deliver more than that.
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Effective and efficient judicial system to be maintained: CJ
The Judiciary is committed to maintaining an effective and efficient judicial system capable of upholding the rule of law and safeguarding the freedom of the individual, the Chief Justice, Sir Ti Liang Yang, said today (Monday) at the Ceremonial Opening of the 1996 Legal Year.
"In order to ensure the judicial process and procedures are as effective and efficient as possible, the Judiciary has been conscious of the need for court reform," he said.
Sir Ti Liang highlighted the major court reform initiatives.
"A bill is being prepared which seeks first to raise the District Court's civil jurisdiction from $120,000 to $300,000; second, to raise its jurisdiction of recovery of land from a rateable value of $100,000 to $500,000; third, to introduce a definition of actions of personal injury and set the jurisdiction at $600,000; and fourth, to streamline its procedures," he said.
On the Family Court, Sir Ti Liang said the review conducted by a working group on the court's practices and procedures was completed last November and a report would be published in early 1996.