dominant instrument.
3. An alternative to 2(b), which would have the further presentational advantage of giving precedence to the Letters Patent/Basic Law, would be to replace the preambular paragraph as follows:-
4.
"Whereas provision is made in Article VII (3) of the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 to 1990 for the implementation through the laws of Hong Kong of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as it is applied to Hong Kong".
The necessity for making the Letters Patent in advance of the final enactment of the BOR would require an amendment or addition to the draft composed of the text of Article VII(3) in the first paragraph of Mr Dykes letter of 9 July to Ms Barrett and para 3 of our telno 1340. (I subsequently - 20.vii.90 provided Ms Major with a full text.)
5.
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A possible amendment would be to substitute "after the [1 Decmeber 1990 or other date]" for "after the coming into force of the Hong Kong Letters Patent (No 2) 1990". That, however, could give the impression that new restrictions could be made between the making of the Letters Patent and the selected date, which would not be desirable.
6. A possible addition would be to set out in a proviso what is the intention of the BOR, namely:-
"Provided that a law of Hong Kong enacted before [1 December 1990] for the purposes of implementing the said Covenant may provide that nothing contained in any law in force in Hong Kong immediately before the making of these Letters Patent nor anything done under the authority of any such law then in force shall, a period of X years,] be held to be inconsistent with or done in contravention of any of the provisions of the law of for the implementation of the Covenant".
The second passage in square brackets is optional. It would, however, be better to include it and, if limited to two or three years, it would add a further restriction to clause 15 of the BOR Ordinance.
Lfer
K15ABE
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