3 - Hong Kong Faces 1997: Legal and Constitutional Issues

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The British dependent territory of Hong Kong will become a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on July 1, 1997. This transfer of sovereignty, ordained by both historical forces and a more recent international agreement between the United Kingdom and the PRC, will be an epochal event in international legal history. Never before, even during the spate of decolonization during the late 1950s and early 1960s, has a new entity been created with such attention to its legal underpinnings. Beginning with the international agreement determining the basic features of the PRC's resumption of sovereignty, to a “mini-constitution” created to govern Hong Kong, to supplemental undertakings providing substantial details of such bodies as the new Court of Final Appeal – legal arrangements have been critical to every stage of determining Hong Kong's new status as an SAR of the PRC. Intended to guarantee the promised “high degree of autonomy” for Hong Kong after 1997 and to maintain Hong Kong's current polity, economy, society, and culture for at least fifty years after the PRC takeover, these legal instruments will likely be tested repeatedly in the months and years immediately following July 1, 1997.

Since the crackdown by the Chinese government in 1989, imposed after months of demonstrations in and around Tiananmen Square, the international community – as well as many residents of Hong Kong themselves – have become increasingly concerned.