TNAG-1333-FCO40-1765-Future-of-Hong-Kong-legislation-1985 — Page 290

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memoranda the documents will be legally binding on the two sides by

virtue of paragraph 6 of the Joint Declaration.

IMPLEMENTATIONS FOR LEGISLATION

4. We have identified the following aspects of the agreement that

will require UK legislation:

(a) The termination of sovereignty over the ceded territories with

effect from 1 July 1997.

to the

(b) The transfer of the rights in land vested in the Crown

Government of the new Special Administration Region of the PRC.

(^) The amendment of the British Nationality Act of 19 to create

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a new status for British Dependent Territories Citizens by right of

connection with Hong Kong.

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We believe that the remaining aspects of the agreement will not have

implications for UK legislation.

5. We propose to deal with 4(a) and (b) in a short bill, leaving

the remaining matters (4(c)-(x)) for later legislation. The bil 1

would state that although this is not a tidy way of legislating, the

Attorney General has confirmed that it is technically feasible, and

it would avoid disrupting the legislative timetable with discussion

of the more controversial issues, such as amendment of the

Nationality Act. A simple bill dealing with the transfer of

sovereignty is all that is required to allow us to ratify the

agreement.

TYPE OF BILL

6. The legislative authority could take one of the following

possible forms:

G

(a) An act of Parliament terminating United Kingdom sovereignty as

from 1 July 1997;

(b) An act of Parliament enabling an order in council to terminate

sovereignty from that date, followed by the bringing into force of

that order, such order being subject to approval or annulment by

Parliament; or

(c) An act of Parliament enabling an order in council to terminate

sovereignty from that ddate, followed by the bringing into force of

that order, such an order not being subject to approval or

by Parliament.

annulment

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