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Lord Wilberforce emphasises in his speech in Wiseman v.
Bornemann (at pp. 317 321) (referring to a different type of
proceedings) that the fact that it is only a prima facie case
which has to be established does not exclude the rules of
natural justice.
However the question here is not whether the applicant
should have an opportunity to deal with the evidence which was
relied on by the Hong Kong Government, but the extent to which
he is entitled to know about evidence of which the Hong Kong
Government at least ought to have been aware, according to the
applicant, on which the Hong Kong Government is not relying.
Bearing in mind the purpose of the legislation, the conclusion
to which I have come is that it would not be right to infer any
general obligation here on the Hong Kong Government to make the
sort of disclosure described in the Attorney-General's
Guidelines As To The Information The Prosecution Should Make
Available To The Defence (1982) 74 CAR 302. This is the
position notwithstanding the fact that those guidelines do have
application to the extent indicated in the guidelines to
committals for trial in this country. In the course of her
helpful submissions, Miss Montgomery pointed out the practical
difficulties which would arise as a result of implying such a
duty in the case of some of the countries whose procedures are
different to those in this country to which the legislation
applies. It appears to me, that an adequate standard of
fairness, so far as disclosure is concerned, in the absence of
any
G
express undertaking given to a defendant, can be achieved by
the statutory ground for applying for habeas corpus contained in
section 11 (c). In considering that ground, in my judgment the
term "good faith" has to be given a reasonably generous
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