Leung hits out at barristers’ attack
Hong Kong’s former justice secretary Elsie Leung Oi-sie has taken a swipe at the Hong Kong Bar Association for “not knowing enough” about the nation’s Constitution after the association criticized the co-location arrangement for the Hong Kong terminus of the Guangzhou-ShenzhenHong Kong Express Rail Link.
Leung, who is also deputy director of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee, said in a radio interview last week the barristers lack the knowledge about the Constitution because they have all along been using the common law approach to read the Basic Law.
“They have no answer to my criticisms,” Leung said in an interview with China Daily. “I wish we had a single tailored-made provision in the Basic Law that could fully cover the co-location arrangement, but it does not mean it could not be implemented because it is not mentioned in the Basic Law,” she argued.
“Due to the differences between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong legal systems, we should not merely refer to a single article when we read the Basic Law.”
Leung stressed that, as a constitutional document, the Basic Law cannot be written in minor details. “At the time the law was being drafted, the concept of the express rail links was unforeseen,” she recalled.
Citing the examples of the Provisional Legislative Council — Hong Kong’s interim legislature created before the handover — the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland, as well as the development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area, Leung said they were also not considered when the Basic Law was enacted, but they fulfill the legislative purpose.
“The fact they were not written into the Basic Law does not mean they violate the Basic Law,” she said.
The former justice chief also said Article 20 of the Basic Law, which stipulates the HKSAR may enjoy more powers granted by the central government, was once considered as the legal basis for the co-location arrangement. The mainland authorities, however, reckoned that relevant powers have already been granted to the SAR government under Articles 2, 7, 22(4) and 154, and there was no need for more powers.
The co-location arrangement also fulfills the legislative purpose of Article 118 and 119, Leung added. “I subscribe to that view because it reflects Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy under ‘one country, two systems’”.
Leung rejected what she called “horror scenes” portrayed by the opposition camp of law enforcement activities in Hong Kong by mainland officers and the arrest of Hong Kong people if they go near the West Kowloon Station.
“Mainland officers will only work in the mainland port area, which is an underground enclosed compound in the West Kowloon Station. They are not allowed to perform duties in other areas of the station. “If people create trouble or stage demonstration in the mainland port area, they’ll be subject to mainland jurisdiction.”