The Provisional Legislative Council could still come under attack, despite a landmark ruling yesterday by the Court of Appeal declaring the body legal.
Senior counsel Gladys Li Chi-hei, who led the battle to outlaw the interim body, said the judgment had left the door open to future challenges.
But Solicitor-General Daniel Fung Wah-kin, who represented the Government in the case, insisted that 'the comprehensive manner in which it was canvassed and the unanimous decision clears up the controversy that has been plaguing us'.
The real question was what the limits of the SAR's authority were, he added, 'and that question has been answered' by the judgment'.
'You can't give up what you don't have, and that's the bottom line,' Mr Fung said. 'That's the deck we have been dealt in this game and we play that hand.' All three Appeal Court judges concluded that it was not their place to second-guess the National People's Congress (NPC) by outlawing the provisional legislature.
'A regional court has no basis to challenge the validity of an act of parliament,' Chief Judge of the High Court Patrick Chan Siu-oi said. 'There is simply no legal basis to do that.' The courts can only investigate whether those decisions have been properly carried out, he said.
