TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 123

This means

called a declaration, but it nevertheless has treaty force.

that its provisions, including its annexes, create rights and obligations

which are binding on the two sides in international law. It was registered

by both governments, with the United Nations, under Article 102 of the

charter of the United Nations. This is the provision which requires

members of the United Nations to register with the United Nations every

treaty and international agreement entered into by them. Therefore, there

can be no doubt that the Joint Declaration is accepted by both sides as a

treaty. Of course, its provisions will not become spent as from the 1 July

1997; it will remain binding on both sides for the years following that

date. So far as the status in international law of the Basic Law is

concerned, the Basic Law, as such, has no status in international law. It

is a Chinese law which was passed under Article 31 of the Chinese

constitution, which permits the establishment of special administrative

regions. It will, in effect, be the constitution of the Hong Kong Special

Administrative Region. I say, will be, because the Basic Law is not in

force, and will only come into force on 1 July 1997. Its provisions as of

now therefore do not have any legally binding effect on the Hong Kong

Government. The Basic Law was enacted by the National People's Congress of

the People's Republic of China in order to fulfil the Chinese obligations

in paragraph 3, subparagraph 12 of the Joint Declaration. This provision

commits the Chinese to stipulate in a basic law the basic policies towards

Hong Kong after 1997, and these policies are set out in Annex I of the

Mr Chairman, the British Government in fact followed

Joint Declarations.

the drafting of the Basic Law very closely, and drew the attention of the

Chinese side to areas in the draft Basic Law which in our view were

inconsistent with the Joint Declaration or which might cause the Hong Kong

Government practical difficulties. Indeed, some of our suggestions are in

fact reflected in the final version of the Basic Law, although there are