TNAG-2880-FCO40-4152-Agreements-between-the-Hong-Kong-Special-Administrative-Regi-1993 — Page 101

Article XIV

38) UK to ask HK how it can fulfill its obligations as it will have no consular or diplomatic officers of its own? Would HK require authentication of documents etc. If so why, and what type of authentications signed by whom would HK require? UK courts sometimes require in civil cases that signature on documents are authenticated.

Article XV

39)

40)

Paragraph (1)

UK should not the reference to "the Requesting Party" in line 4 be to "the Requested Party"?

Paragraph (2)

UK to explain lines 4 (second half) and 5 are inconsistent with the UK's Criminal Justice (International Cooperation) Act 1990 as a HKSAR person whose sentence expired during trial in UK would be detained under UK immigration laws. UK consequently proposes deletion of "which shall ensure that person's release from custody.".

Fall Back

Propose substituting paragraph 2 by UK/US MLAT Article 11(2)(b) language:

"The Requesting Party shall return the person transferred to the custody of the Requested Party as soon as circumstances permit and in any event no later than the date upon which he would have been released from custody in the territory of the Requested Party, unless otherwise agreed by both Central Authorities and the person transferred.".

Article XVII

41)

42)

Paragraph 1

For

UK to ask whether a person referred to in this paragraph includes a person summonsed. Would like the words "Article XV or XVI" to be replaced by "this Agreement" to give greater protection to such persons. clarification the words "while he is in the territory of the Requesting Party" whilst giving assistance under this Agreement" should be added to the end of the paragraph.

The UK to ask HK to clarify inclusion of civil matters. The words "or civil matter" give the UK difficulty. It would be very difficult to prevent courts or private persons from taking action eg for contempt in the context of civil proceedings, though would be generally unlikely to involve detention or restriction of personal liberty. UK would like to delete these words.