Hong Kong and the PRC: Mutual Legal Assistance — A Chinese Puzzle
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb025915 |
| Date | 01 February 1999 |
| Pages | 385-390 |
| Published date | 01 February 1999 |
| Author | David Fitzpatrick |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Financial Crime — Vol. 6 No. 4 — International
Hong Kong and the PRC: Mutual Legal Assistance —
A Chinese Puzzle
David Fitzpatrick
A CHINESE PUZZLE
At the stroke of midnight on 30th June, 1997 Hong
Kong was returned to the People's Republic of
China. China takes justifiable pride in what has to
date been a smooth transition, but the government
in Beijing is now confronted by a demanding reality,
the need to make detailed arrangements regulating
the legal ties between the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (SAR) and the sovereign
power. Not the least of the problems concern the
degree and means by which mutual legal assistance
in criminal matters will be made available. The
puzzle for the People's Republic is that Hong
Kong's dependent status begs a high degree of
mutual cooperation with China, but the procedural
safeguards that exist to govern Hong Kong's coop-
eration with third jurisdictions may not easily be
used as a model: the safeguards built into the current
legislation would operate to exclude the sovereign
power! On the other hand, if future cooperation
between Hong Kong and China is to take place with-
out safeguards local and international confidence may
suffer.
MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE: AN
EMERGING INTERNATIONAL NORM
Mutual legal assistance should be the inevitable con-
sequence of the interaction of developed jurisdictions.
An extensive trade in goods and services, together
with a high level of cultural exchange and social
intercourse, begs a high degree of integration of
each jurisdiction's formal institutions: a correspond-
ing level of integration should be exhibited by each
trading partner's criminal justice system. Mutual
legal assistance in civil matters, which underpins
trade, will grant as a minimum the reciprocal enfor-
cement of judgments. Such arrangements in civil
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