TNAG-0189-FCO40-225-Chinese-marriages-in-Hong-Kong-1969 — Page 35

will be registered, all will have equal validity. It would seem on principle that all should derive that validity from a single act of registration, uniform for all members of the community, as is the case in an increasingly large majority of modern states.

19. A further general point to which the Sub-Committee would wish to draw the attention of the Government is the need to consider carefully the international implications of any legislation which is enacted. It goes without saying that the Sub-Committee welcomes the attention given in the Report to the desirability of reforming the laws of the Colony in harmony with the international standards proposed by various organs of the United Nations. It is in every way proper that the Colony should keep pace with international and regional developments in these matters. However, it seems that in their enthusiasm to meet the advancing standards laid down de lege ferenda by public international organisations, the authors of the Report neglected to consider fully the more practical, if mundane, requirements of private international law. In a community like that of Hong Kong, which has traditionally consisted, as it still consists and will probably continue to consist, of a partly fluid or transient population, it is of particular importance that the law determining status should be as clear and precise as possible. It is, indeed, the duty of the Government to ensure that the law of status is articulated in such a form that it can be applied by foreign courts and government authorities without undue difficulty. The ease of modern communications and the evolution of political events alike suggest that many marriages already contracted in Hong Kong or to be contracted here in the near future may eventually require consideration by the courts and official organs of other states (in particular, perhaps, those common law countries to which there is, or is likely to be, substantial immigration by Hong Kong Chinese - the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia). Accordingly, the Sub-Committee feels justified in pointing to the need for careful draftmanship in this regard, and in its detailed consideration of the various proposals, it has been concerned to seek solutions not only to the internal legal problems of Hong Kong, but also to problems that may arise in the conflict of laws.

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