TNAG-2320-FCO40-3364-Human-rights-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 149

They would

melt before

Government and the

the

of guns

sun of a resolute Executive

its soldiers glittering and

numerous. Even a courageous judge, determined to expound and

uphold his or her vision of basic rights, would find that

vision blunted

blunted by a determined and opinionated political

government. A mountain of erudite jurisprudence or even the

full weight of international human rights law would not

prevent the "basic rights" from being overwhelmed.

The judge

would be like a modern Canute, bidding the waves of executive

power to recede. Those not used to being bidden in this

way still less accustomed to obeying such curial bidding

might find an appeal to a "piece of paper" unpersuasive, even

They might justify their action - possibly in all

sincerity by an appeal to collectivist notions and to the

urgent necessities of "revolutionary justice" in Hong Kong,

once it is part of the PRC.

-

laughable.

-

THE RELEVANCE OF CONFUCIAN APPROACHES TO LAW

Concerns about these issues

are not wholly political

that in part.

A recent

and philosophical. But they

they are

influential book in Australia has suggested that "China and

the Four Dragons" (meaning Japan, the Republic of Korea, the

Republic of China (Taiwan) and Singapore) do not really share

with western and other countries common assumptions about

human rights and the rule of law. The book, The Confucian

Renaissance61 expounds the thesis that modern China (and

countries of a similar ethic) are still deeply imbued with a

vision of society, and the rôle of the

rôle of the individual

individual in it,

expounded by the itinerant Chinese scholar, philosopher and

teacher Confucius nearly 2500 years ago in the Spring and

Autumn Period of China's history.

Followed by the Hundred

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