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Fanny Wong

THE Government may have to go it alone in amending Hong Kong laws to bring them in line with the changing sovereignty in 1997, if China refuses to endorse the proposed legislative changes.

  The British side is concerned that the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG) has made little progress in its work and there is a serious log-jam in the exercise of making local laws compatible with the Basic Law.

  There are now nearly 600 ordinances and nearly 1,000 items of subsidiary legislation on Hong Kong's books.

  All of these and all new ordinances require scrutiny to ensure that they conform with the Basic Law, and every proposal for adaptation has to be put to the JLG.

  The Constitutional Affairs Branch and the Legal Department are working together in the examination of the statute book and the aim is to have 155 of the ordinances done within a year.

  The British side expected that even though the bulk of work now had to be done in 31/2 years, there would be enough time to finish the job.

  ''But the problem is whether we can carry the Chinese side with us,'' a source said.

  The British JLG team has expressed disappointment that the work of the JLG was bogged down in the strained Sino-British relations since the June 4, 1989, crackdown and the recent row over constitutional reforms.

  Yet another round of the plenum of the diplomatic body was held in London last week though China was not in the mood to speed up the work.

  A source said that if China's endorsement for Britain's proposal for adaptation of laws was not forthcoming, it was possible that the Hong Kong Government would go ahead with the legislative changes unilaterally.

  ''I'd hope that if we did get on to this situation, it would not cause an outcry with our friends from across the border,'' the source said.

  Some Preliminary Working Committee members said they would conduct their own study on the compatibility of Hong Kong laws with the mini-constitution.

  The source said that if they did that, hopefully they would advise the Chinese side about anything they disagreed with and this could then be passed on to the British side.

  The British side also dismissed the idea of rushing into agreements at the last minute.

  ''They can't do it all in the last few weeks or few months [before the transfer of sovereignty]. It must be done in a steady measured way in the next few sessions,'' the source said.

  At yesterday's Legislative Council constitutional development panel, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Michael Sze Cho-cheung underlined the need to speed up the JLG work.

  He said the diplomatic body would have to finish 52 items of work in only 10 meetings in the coming 31/2 years, so the JLG had to increase the number of meetings and to accelerate the work of the expert groups.

  He said Hong Kong might envisage a legal vacuum if the issue on adaptation and localisation of law, the most time-consuming task, could not be completed on time.

 Asked by United Democrat Cheung Man-kwong if the Government could go ahead with some of the legislation alone, Mr Sze declined to offer a direct answer, saying only that the approach might create serious repercussions.

  ''Whether it would affect the interests of Hong Kong would be the greatest concern for the administration,'' he said.

  Members of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) who met British JLG team leader Hugh Davies quoted the British diplomat as saying that the Government might either face a legal vacuum after 1997 or go it alone before 1997.

  ADPL member Daniel Wong Kwok-tung quoted Mr Davies as saying that the Government might have to table all the necessary legislative amendments to the Legislative Council to be passed before 1997.

      The British side would not take the Chinese response into consideration in going alone on amending the laws although China might reserve the right to amend the laws again after 1997, according to Mr Wong.

  The British JLG chief had said this should be done to ensure a sound legal system for Hong Kong, according to Mr Wong.



HK may go it alone