CONFIDENTIAL
"Interpretation of questions involving the specific application
of laws and decrees shall be provided by the Supreme Court". (Other subordinate organs may also enjoy a power of
interpretation in the "specific application of laws" e.g. the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the State Council) .
Article 157 of the Basic Law is consistent with Article 67 of the PRC Constitution in stating that the power of interpretation is vested in the Standing Committee.
As with the resolution of 10 June 1981, it provides that the courts of the SAR may interpret the Basic Law "in adjudicating cases before them". This power of the courts of the SAR extends both
to matters within the autonomy of the SAR and the rest of the Basic Law with the following distinction, namely that, where a decision of the SAR courts necessitates their interpreting provisions which concern affairs which are the responsibilities of the CPG, or the relationship between the Central Authorities and the SAR, the courts are required to seek an interpretation of the relevant provision from the Standing Committee before giving final judgement. (This latter provision is comparable to Article 177 of the Treaty of Rome). [Ji Pengfei made the distinction between the Constitutional power of the Standing Committee to interpret the Basic Law and the power of the courts "in adjudicating cases before them" to interpret autonomy provisions when he introduced the Basic Law at the Standing Committee on 15 February. He did not deal with the non-autonomy provisions expressly and his analogy between Article 17 and the interpretation power is less than convincing].
The affairs which are the responsibility of the CPG will include both foreign affairs and defence and, to the extent that they do not fall within these categories, the six provisions [they are not all laws] set out in Annex III. There are also matters which relate to the relationship between the Central Authorities and the SAR, e.g. the functions of the CPG as regards the Chief Executive (Arts. 43, 45 and 72(9)).
CONFIDENTIAL
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