duties
citizens of the Hong Kong SAR will be able to come before an
independent judge
judge who will determine rights and
according to law.
That some features of the present régime in Hong Kong
will endure for a time seems beyond question.
At first, the
world's gaze will be upon the transition of power.
Nothing
But the promise
is likely to happen in the first few years. is for at least fifty years. The busy world will soon lose
interest in the transition of Hong Kong.
After the
transition of government power is accomplished, and seemingly turn to other the world will
set upon
fair a
course,
problems. That will be the moment of truth for Hong Kong.
common law of England
collected in the Bill
Bill of Rights applied in Hong Kong,
Hong Kong, collected Ordinance and promised in the Basic Law endure beyond that time? Coldly we must balance the points for optimism and caution. We must weigh them in the crucible of history, seen In my scales, there are ten from this vantage point of 1991. points for optimism and ten for caution.
Will the rights reflected in the
now.
I will state them
POINTS OF OPTIMISM
The first point for hope lies in the history of the It is a history of a resilient legal
common law itself.
freedom
system which survives revolutions, bitter hatreds, struggles, emergence from colonial rule, the change of the language of the courts and different systems of justice.
is
It
to eradicate. Because its basic
a system difficult jurisprudence is written in the English language and daily
renewed in courts around the world, it is
once taken root that
a living plant,
that is hard to extirpate. One anonymous
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