TNAG-2225-FCO40-3196-Political-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Australia-1991 — Page 18

she will have constant access to a body of legal principle to

which appeal for legal authority can always be made;

Seventhly, it is not as if the judicial officers of

Hong Kong stand alone. The law schools of Hong Kong produce

many lawyers who, as this conference has shown,

not

an

accept and

uphold the fundamental principles of basic rights, respect for minorities and adherence to the rule of law determined by

an independent judiciary. The right of access to a judge is

meaningless if the judge does

have the support of

independent legal profession. The whole history of the

common law has been one of the assertion of the independence

of the legal profession, including on the part of the

judiciary itself. It is

is unlikely that, after 1997, the

robust individuals who make up that profession in Hong Kong

will fade away or become plaint instruments of the state;

Eighthly, the economic interests of Hong Kong depend

significantly upon international confidence in the

independence and ability of its courts.

Shatter that

confidence and the financial and economic stability of the

This the PRC

knows.

is

Territory could be wounded, even mortally so.

It is in the interests of the PRC, which

developing its own economic regions in the vicinity of Hong

Kong, to keep this international port strong, adventurous and

Any rational examination of the underpinnings of

Hong Kong would produce the realization the importance of

It may continuing confidence in Hong Kong's judicial system.

prosperous.

go too far to say that economic self-interest is the chief or

only fundamental assurance for the continuance of basic

rights and judicial independence in Hong Kong after 1997. But it is certainly an important feature of the real

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