TNAG-2164-FCO40-3097-Judicial-arrangements-between-Hong-Kong-and-Brunei-1990 — Page 15

3

Minute to SEAD.

HOUSE

per Pm1.775.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE

HONG KONG

香港總督府

CONFIDENTIAL

HKC373/1

RECEL

- 5 JUN 1990

OFSK A

INDEX

REGISTRY

293 REGISTRY

Action Taken

Miss Major plaisans (with refs)

29/3

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23 March 1990

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Brunei: Judicial Arrangements

The Brunei Minister of Law was recently in Hong Kong. The Chief Justice has given me an account of a discussion they had which touched on Bruneian plans to develop their own system and the amount of help they may need.

Sir T L said that the Minister planned to create an 'intermediate court' by the summer of 1991 to handle some of the trials now dealt with by their High Court. He also intended to compile a list of retired Hong Kong Supreme Court Judges who could be called upon from time to time to sit in the High Court. He hoped that, as a result of these two measures, the need for Hong Kong High Court Judges to go to Brunei (at the moment as frequently as once every two months) will cease.

The Minister apparently also said that the Bruneians would nevertheless continue to rely on Hong Kong, for the foreseeable future, for hearings in their Court of Appeal. This requires three judges, comprising at the moment Sir T L as President of the Court of Appeal, a Justice of Appeal and a High Court Judge.

The Minister seemed undecided about whether Brunei wished Hong Kong assistance to the Court of Appeal after 1997. Sir TL reminded him that any post-1997 arrangement might probably have to be a matter between Brunei and China, and that, at present, there were no diplomatic relations between the two.

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