Updates on the Hong Kong Basic Law

Danny Gittings’ Introduction to the Hong Kong Basic Law was published by Hong Kong University Press in July 2013. This page contains updates to the book. These are listed by reference to the relevant pages in the book. For ease of reference, wherever possible a relevant footnote on the page is cited.
(Note: “n” is used as an abbreviation for “footnote”. For example, “10n2” refers to footnote 2 on page 10)

 

Update to page 145n288

A challenge to the Legislative Council President’s ruling of 22 May 2012, ending further debate during the first filibuster attempt by radical pro-democracy lawmakers, was rejected by the Court of Appeal in Leung Kwok Hung v President of the Legislative Council [2013] 2 HKC 580. This was followed by a second ruling by the Legislative Council President ending debate on a further filibuster attempt by radical pro-democracy legislators. See Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang, President’s ruling on allocation of time for the remaining proceedings on the Appropriation Bill 2013 (16 May 2013) at
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/pre_rul/pre0516-ref-e.pdf

 

Update to page 147n297

The reluctance of the court’s to interfere in the internal workings of the legislature was reiterated in Leung Kwok Hung v President of the Legislative Council [2013] 2 HKC 580, where the Court of Appeal added (at 588) that the courts “should, ‘so far as possible’, avoid interfering in the legislative process”.

 

Update to pages 202n366, 209n429, 243n143, 250n193, 254n18 and 265n21:

The Court of Final Appeal decision on the right of abode for foreign domestic helpers has now been reported in Hong Kong Cases.
It should be cited as Vallejos Evangeline Banao v Commissioner of Registration [2013] 4 HKC 239.

 

Update to pages 216-217

Ling (2013) describes the act of state doctrine as “simple incapable of being used to turn an executive policy on foreign affairs into a legal rule binding on the court” in an important new article criticizing the Court of Final Appeal’s decision on this point in Democratic Republic of Congo v FG Hemisphere (2011) 14 HKCFAR 95. See further Bing Ling, “The ‘confused topic’ of act of state under the Hong Kong Basic Law” (2013) 1:1 The Chinese Journal of Comparative Law 84-111.