Letters | Compared to colonial times, the rule of law in Hong Kong has improved, rather than deteriorated

As a British colony, Hong Kong never had anything near full democracy nor checks and balances to limit executive power. Worse, faraway London had the final judicial adjudication and interpretive authority

Reading Time:2 minutes

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor arrives for a question and answer session at the Legislative Council in Tamar, Admiralty, on October 17. After 1997, Hong Kong has had a partially representative, locally elected legislature to debate and pass laws more suited to society. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:25am, 21 Oct 2019Updated: 7:25am, 21 Oct 2019

It has always seemed a little strange to me that commentators, the media and even legal professionals refer to the post-1997 period as being one during which Hong Kong’s rule of law has progressively deteriorated into “rule by law” by Beijing. The alleged erosion of the rule of law principally arises from when the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee interprets the Basic Law over the final adjudication of the Court of Final Appeal and from the lack of completely democratically elected institutions to act as checks and balances on executive power.

There may be some merit to this view but it isn’t clear that there has been a decline in the rule of law in Hong Kong post-1997 versus pre-1997.

Before 1997, Hong Kong, being a British colony, had no fully democratic locally elected institutions. There were no checks and balances limiting the executive power of the governor. During most of the colonial era, Hong Kong lacked a locally elected legislative body to formulate its own laws.

Hong Kong’s laws were adopted from those issued by the British Parliament in London. Most were simply copied with minor adaptations made to some to suit the local context. Laws were not vetted by a democratically elected body in Hong Kong. Statutes or legislation in effect had no democratic validity, at least if we are to consider them within the local Hong Kong context.

Then Hong Kong governor Edward Youde opens the 1985-86 session of the Legislative Council in October 1985. In the colonial era, Hong Kong never had a fully locally elected legislative body to formulate its own laws. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Final judicial adjudication and interpretive authority lay with the Privy Council, again sitting in London. Presumably none of the judges there were representative of Hongkongers’ culture or their social context.