About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

33 Hong Kong L.J. 1 (2003)
How Hong Kong Law Will Change When Article 23 of the Basic Law is Implemented

handle is hein.journals/honkon33 and id is 3 raw text is: COMMENT How HONG KONG LAW WILL CHANGE WHEN ARTICLE 23 OF THE BASIC LAW IS IMPLEMENTED Article 23 of the Basic Law (BL 23) requires the Hong Kong Special Admin- istrative Region (HKSAR) to enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government. It also deals with issues of state secrets and the activities of foreign political organisations in Hong Kong. Many of the issues raised by BL 23 are considered to be politically sensitive. Ever since the Basic Law was enacted in 1990 and brought into effect in July 1997 there have been anxi- eties over the implementation of BL 23. What is interesting about BL 23 is that it does not directly prohibit treason, sedition, subversion and related actions, nor does it define the precise mean- ing of these words. Instead, it empowers the HKSAR - in practice its legislature - to enact laws to define and penalise such actions. This is an important aspect of the autonomy of the HKSAR under the concept of one country, two systems, which demonstrated respect for the existing social, economic and legal systems in Hong Kong at the time of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997 by ensuring that mainland laws and practices will not be im- posed on Hong Kong. In the five years since the handover, nothing has happened in Hong Kong that raises the issues touched upon by BL 23. It has never been suggested that any activity in Hong Kong constitutes a possible threat to China's national security. It is therefore understandable that the publication by the HKSAR Government on 24 September 2002 of the consultation document on Pro- posals to Implement Article 23 of the Basic Law caused much public anxiety. Hong Kong people are concerned that the Hong Kong or Beijing Govern- ments may have sinister intentions to curtail civil liberties and human rights in Hong Kong and extend mainland standards regarding matters such as sub- version or the theft of state secrets to Hong Kong. However, from the legal or constitutional perspective, it seems that BL 23 does impose a legal obligation on the HKSAR Government to enact laws on the matters covered by it. The Government would be abdicating its constitutional duty if it did not address the question of the implementation of BL 23 within a reasonable time after the establishment of the SAR, and instead postponed the matter indefinitely. Why, then, did it take the HKSAR Government as long as five years to come up with its proposal on the implementation of BL 23? This can perhaps be explained by the fact that immediately after the establishment of the HKSAR Government in 1997, there were many matters for it to address with a higher priority than BL 23. After all, as mentioned above, nothing has happened in Hong Kong since the handover that comes close to the kind of

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most