Make sure joint-checkpoint plan is a ‘one-off’, says Hong Kong Bar Association chairman
Paul Lam says a solution to the row over the controversial plan is to amend the Basic Law to ensure mainland law does not crop up in other parts of the city
Public trust in Hong Kong’s rule of law can be preserved by amending Hong Kong’s mini-constitution to guarantee that the contentious joint-checkpoint plan for a cross-border rail link is just a “one-off”, the chairman of the Bar Association said on Tuesday.
Paul Lam Ting-kwok SC also said Beijing and city officials bore a “heavy duty” to explain why the so-called co-location arrangement – which would give mainland officers almost full jurisdiction over part of the West Kowloon terminal leased to them – would be in line with the Basic Law, even though it clearly stated no national laws should be enforced in Hong Kong except those listed in its Annex III.
Last week, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top legislative body, approved the checkpoint plan for the high-speed rail link from the heart of Hong Kong to the mainland city of Guangzhou, dismissing any notion that it would diminish the city’s level of autonomy protected in the Basic Law.
Lam said the committee’s legal reasoning was “unconvincing”.
“I think the safest way must be amending the Basic Law … by adding a provision to make it an exception for this co-location arrangement,” Lam said. “That could at least have the effect of reassuring people that it is a one-off and very exceptional case.”