Provisional Legislative Council

Provisional Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 香港特別行政區臨時立法會
Type
Type	Unicameral
History
Established	25 January 1997;27 years ago (1997-01-25)
Disbanded	30 June 1998;25 years ago (1998-06-30)
Preceded by	Colonial Legislative Council
Succeeded by	Legislative Council HKSAR
Leadership
President	Rita Fan, Independent
Seats	60
Elections
Voting system	Plurality-at-large by Selection Committee
Meeting place
Huaxia Art Centre (February–June 1997) Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (1 July 1997) Legislative Council Building (1 July 1997 – 30 June 1998)

Main article: 1996 Hong Kong provisional legislative election

President of the Provisional Legislative Council

Main article: 1997 President of the Hong Kong Provisional Legislative Council election

The president of the PLC was Rita Fan, who later led the legislative council following the handover.

Members

Main article: List of LegCo members elected in Hong Kong legislative election, 1996

Officers of the Provisional Legislative Council

The only officer found in the records was for the Clerk, Pauline Ng Man-Wah. Immediately after the Provisional Legislative Council was disbanded, she became the clerk of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. She retired from this position on 28 August 2012. ^[10]

Standing committees

• Finance Committee
• Public Accounts Committee
• Committee of Members' Interest

Legislative functions

The legislative functions of the PLC are described by the Preparatory Committee in 1996. ^{[4] : 375}

Proceedings

Meeting broadcast

Sessions of the PLC were broadcast with assistance from the Shenzhen Television Station. ^[11]

Legal status

The PLC is neither referred to in the Basic Law nor the Joint Declaration as their drafters assumed the last colonial legislative session would automatically become the Special Administrative Region's first legislature. ^{[12] : 546} The legality of the PLC was challenged in the case HKSAR v Ma Wai Kwan ^[13] decided by the Court of Appeal on 29 July 1997. The defendants argued that the PLC was unlawful because it did not satisfy the Basic Law's definition of Hong Kong's legislature in Annex II. ^{[12] : 546} The court dismissed the argument. Among other reasons, the court held that as a local court it had no power to review an act of a sovereign authority. ^{[14] : 633} The court reasoned that since Article 19 of the Basic Law did not expand its judicial powers and that it had no power to review the validity of a sovereign act under colonial rule, it did not hold such power after the handover. ^{[14] : 633} While Justice Gerald Nazareth agreed with the majority decision, he questioned whether the constitutional structure of China and that of the United Kingdom were analogous. He also noted there was no "detailed review" of the Chinese constitution during the trial. ^{[13] : 352–353} The decision in Ma Wai Kwan was upheld by the Court of Final Appeal in Ng Ka Ling v Director of Immigration decided in January 1999.

Johannes Chan commented that the lack of judicial review power to review acts of Parliament reflected parliamentary supremacy, a doctrine borne out of unwritten constitutional systems. ^{[4] : 376} Since China has a written constitution and that the Basic Law describes the relationship between Hong Kong and the central government unlike the colonial Letters Patent and the Royal Instructions, Chan questioned whether parliamentary supremacy still fully applies in Hong Kong after 1997. ^{[4] : 377}

See also

• Hong Kong portal

• Legislative Council of Hong Kong
• 1996 Hong Kong Provisional Legislature election
• Legislation of the Provisional Government of Hong Kong

References

1. History of the Legco
2. "Decision of the National People's Congress on the Method for the Formation of the First Government and the First Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" (PDF). 4 April 1990. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
3. Chen, Albert H. Y. (1997). "The Provisional Legislative Council of the SAR" (PDF). Hong Kong Law Journal. 27 (1): 1–11.
4. Chan, Johannes (1997). "The Jurisdiction and Legality of the Provisional Legislative Council" (PDF). Hong Kong Law Journal. 27 (3): 374–387.
5. Gittings, Danny (2016). Introduction to the Hong Kong Basic Law (2nd ed.). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN   9789888208364.
6. Scragg, Richard (1997). "Constitutional Change in Hong Kong: The Legitimacy of the Provisional Legislative Council" . Canterbury Law Review. 6 (3): 593–609. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
7. Humphrey, Peter (21 December 1996). "China snubs Britain with new HK legislature". Reuters.
8. Singh, Harminder (2 September 2016). "Explained: how Hong Kong's Legislative Council has evolved". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
9. "Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region – History of the Legislature" . Retrieved 25 May 2015.
10. "政情：吳文華退休生活忙過返工".
11. http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr97-98/english/sec/a_rpt9798.pdf ^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
12. Yap, Po Jen (2007). "Interpreting the Basic Law and the Adjudication of Politically Sensitive Questions". Chinese Journal of International Law. 6 (3): 543–564. doi:10.1093/chinesejil/jmm030.
13. HKSAR v Ma Wai Kwan, David [1997] HKLRD 761 (CA).
14. Chen, Albert H. Y. (2006). "Constitutional Adjudication in Post-1997 Hong Kong" (PDF). Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal. 15 (3): 627–682. Retrieved 6 December 2018.

Further reading

• Richburg, Keith B. (9 April 1997). "Hong Kong's Legislature-in-Waiting". Washington Post . p. A23.

Provisional Legislative Council
Traditional Chinese	香港特別行政區臨時立法會
Simplified Chinese	香港特别行政区临时立法会
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xiānggǎng Tèbiéxíngzhèngqū Línshí Lìfǎhuì Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hēung góng dahk biht hàhng jing kēui làhm sìh lahp faat wuih Jyutping Hoeng1 gong2 dak6 bit6 hang4 zing3 keoi1 lam4 si4 lap6 faat3 wui6*2

v t e Terms of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
Provisional (1997) 1st (1998) 2nd (2000) 3rd (2004) 4th (2008) 5th (2012) 6th (2016) 7th (2021)