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What’s in three words? Hong Kong debates whether principle of separation of powers applies to city
Beijing loyalists insist that it does not exist in Basic Law, while Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma says mini-constitution clearly sets out the principle
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The decades-old debate about whether Hong Kong exercises separation of powers has been unleashed again, following the government’s unprecedented move to ask a court to disqualify two democratically elected localist lawmakers.
Some say the three words are nowhere to be found in the Basic Law; others say its spirit is enshrined in the city’s mini-constitution and has been elevated to a valid legal principle through past court rulings.
Among the prominent figures who deny the existence here of the political philosophy that has guided Western democracies for two centuries are Beijing loyalists Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, the city’s sole delegate to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, and Maria Tam Wai-chu, a member of the Basic Law Committee under the Standing Committee.
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Fan said on Thursday the Basic Law “makes no mention” of separation of powers. Tam – a former Basic Law drafter – said separation of powers was not how Hong Kong’s political structure was defined, but admitted it was a legal principle for the courts.
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Their opinion was in stark contrast to a speech made just two years ago by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li.
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