TNAG-1866-FCO40-2650-Future-of-Hong-Kong-legal-issues-1989 — Page 37

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

Norman Chan, Esq

PAS (GD) 3

Government Secretariat

HONG KONG

Dear Norman,

TOMAAB

Telephone 01- 270 2655

Your reference

Our reference

Date 18 November 1987

CIVIL LAW: COOPERATION WITH OTHER JURISDICTIONS

1.

I enclose copies of two papers (the second a qualification of a particular paragraph in the first) on Hong Kong's cooperation with other jurisdictions in the sphere of civil law. They were prepared by Henry Steel of our Legal Advisers.

2. As you will see paragraph 8 of the main paper suggests that the next step is to check our existing lists of bilateral and multilateral treaties applicable to Hong Kong to identify all

This we have those that are relevant to civil law cooperation.

now done, and the outcome is contained in the enclosed notes prepared by Treaty Section of our Nationality and Treaty Department. One question which we are still considering is whether the UK's accession, from 1 January this year, to the European Community Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters (the "Brussels Convention" which by definition cannot apply to Hong Kong) means that the provisions of the five earlier bilateral agreements with EC countries have been superseded in their application to Hong Kong. There is some uncertainty on this point, but we will let you know when we have reached a definite view.

3. The paper makes proposals for the selection of arrangements which need to be continued and the procedure for achieving this. These are, of course, matters in which you have the greatest interest and we should therefore welcome your comments on the paper. (It may be that we can give you further assistance in coming to a view on the issues involved).

4.

There is one point that both you and we should not lose sight of the need for arrangements between the UK and Hong Kong after 1997. There are likely to be many private law and commercial law transactions which have a relevance both in Hong Kong and in the UK and we need to examine them and, as necessary, make sure that reciprocal or complementary provisions exist in the law of Hong Kong and the UK for judicial cooperation and