TNAG-1259-FCO40-1599-The-Future-of-Hong-Kong---special-study-by-FCO--August-1982--1983 — Page 264

CODE 18.77

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Reference.........

ANNEX L (Legal System in Hong Kong).

12. I am not sure that paragraph 3 is factually correct. I suggest it be replaced by :

"On a cession of territory, the existing corpus of law could, if the new sovereign agreed, remain in force subject to the powers of the competent authorities to amend or replace particular laws thereafter as occasion may require."

13. In paragraph 4, the words "in this way" should be deleted. The rest of the annex does not seem to contemplate a Chinese power to amend our laws while we remain in occupation see paragraph 7.

14.

Paragraph 6. The expression "under a management contract" is a convenient shorthand piece of jargon. There is of course no question of our regulating Hong Kong's future by means of a contract operating in the field of private law. Any future arrangements will operate in the field of international law, if they have legal effect at all.

15. I suggest that the first sentence of paragraph 7 be replaced by:

"Hong Kong has its own courts of justice which, in accordance with the Letters Patent and Royal Instructions, are established under local laws and financed locally."

I leave it to the department to say, from its records, whether it is historically correct to say that the Attorney General is normally a Queens Counsel.

16. In paragraph 22 I would remove the words "and most independent countries". I do not know whether the department could produce statistical evidence that in most independent countries the office of Attorney General is a political appoint- ment, but I suspect that they could not. I also question whether in most independent countries there is a close equivalent of the office of Attorney General.

ANNEX O (Crown Leases in the New Territories)

17.

A revision of this annex must, I think,await advice from the Law Officers.

30 March 1983

J. Bunows

F Burrows

Legal Counsellor

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