Malcolm Rifkind

Opinion | Beijing must respect High Court mask-law ruling in the interests of both Hong Kong and China

Any attempt to undermine Hong Kong’s judiciary would only be seen as a naked power grab by the mainland executive, inadvertently destroying the rule of law crucial to the city’s role as an international financial centre

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Protesters march in Causeway Bay on Halloween, on October 31, in defiance of the unpopular anti-mask law, which was hurriedly enacted under colonial-era emergency laws, a move the High Court has struck down as unconstitutional. Photo: May Tse

Malcolm Rifkind

Published: 5:00pm, 21 Nov 2019Updated: 5:13pm, 21 Nov 2019

With the fireworks at Hong Kong Polytechnic University dominating international media attention, it is easy to miss a far bigger watershed. After Hong Kong’s High Court rightly pronounced Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s application of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance unconstitutional, China’s National People’s Congress made an announcement which could – if translated into policy – signal the end of Hong Kong’s rule of law as we know it.

Noting that China’s “constitution and the Basic Law jointly form the constitutional foundation of [Hong Kong]”, a spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission said: “Whether Hong Kong’s laws are consistent with the Basic Law can only be judged and decided by the NPCSC. No other authority has the right to make judgments and decisions.”

The statement also condemned the Hong Kong judgment as “severely weakening the legally enshrined power to govern enjoyed by the chief executive”.

The statement is a naked power grab by the central government from the Hong Kong judiciary, and is clearly in breach of both existing Hong Kong case law and the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The integrity of Hong Kong’s legal system was a key priority for us when we negotiated the handover settlement. This was why Article 3(3) of the Sino-British Joint Declaration states that, “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication.”

Stripping the courts of their powers of final adjudication would have major ramifications for the city as an international financial hub, because of the implications it has for Hong Kong’s rule of law and the city’s autonomy.