even perhaps only when the husband is domiciled in Hong Kong, there will necessarily be a reduction in the availability of dissolution by consent as a means of terminating Chinese marriages. At present it would seem that any two Chinese persons who are domiciled in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and possibly even China where the dissolution takes place outside Chinese Territory, can conclude a divorce agreement anywhere in the world, wherever they are resident or merely present, and even where they are not present in any one place together, which is recognized as effective by their lex domicilii.
80. The exact scope of the jurisdiction which will arise from the proposed reforms must be the subject of careful thought. On principle, in accordance with the rule of effectiveness, it should depend on domicile of the husband in Hong Kong, but in view of the well-known difficulties in the way of establishing a domicile of choice in the Colony in many cases, and in view of the consensual nature of the submission to the jurisdiction by the parties, it may be that a more liberal rule could with propriety be followed. Both the People's Republic of China and the Taiwan authorities base the personal law on the connecting factor of nationality but as the nature of the relief granted by the proposed jurisdiction - registration of a divorce agreement, possibly subject to some judicial safeguards accords with divorce law in those two jurisdictions, it would seem unlikely that any pressing rules of public policy would prevent them from recognizing divorces registered in Hong Kong provided the parties were present here at the material time. As regards the world as a whole, however, it is quite plain, though the Report makes no mention of the point, that any act of recognition by the Hong Kong authorities in respect of consensual divorces, even by simple registration at the suit of the parties, without an inquiry of any sort, is an act of jurisdiction by the Hong Kong Government, and as such it can hardly, in accordance with the English conflict rules at least, be made available to all comers without any regard to domicile, residence, or presence within the jurisdiction.
81. The Sub-Committee is very much in favour of some relaxation of the existing rule whereby domicile, with all the problems which that concept connotes in English law, is the general basis
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