Suchergebnisse

AbstractPost-1997 Hong Kong under the constitutional framework of "One Country Two Systems" has a political system that may be characterized as a "semi-democracy." Hong Kong's constitutional instrument—the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China—provides that the ultimate goal of the evolution of Hong Kong's political system is the election of its Chief Executive by universal suffrage. Since 2003, a democracy movement has developed in Hong Kong that campaigned for the speedy introduction of such universal suffrage. In 2007, the Chinese government announced that universal suffrage for the election of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong may be introduced in 2017. In 2014, the Chinese government announced further details of the electoral model. The model was rejected by Hong Kong's Legislative Council in 2015, with the result that the election of the Chief Executive in 2017 would not materialize. This article seeks to tell this story of Hong Kong's quest for democratization, focusing particularly on the context and background of the "Occupy Central" Movement that emerged in 2013 and its aftermath. It suggests that the struggle for universal suffrage in the election of Hong Kong's Chief Executive in 2017 and the obstacles it faced reveal the underlying tensions behind, and the contradictions inherent in, the concept and practice of "One Country, Two Systems," particularly the conflict between the Communist Party-led socialist political system in mainland China and the aspirations towards Western-style liberal democracy on the part of "pan-democrats" and their supporters in Hong Kong.

In July 1997, the British colony of Hong Kong was returned to the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). It became a Special Administrative Region ("SAR") of the PRC in accordance with the concept of "one country, two systems" embodied by the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984. The constitutional instrument of Hong Kong's new legal and political system is the Basic Law of the SAR of Hong Kong, enacted by the National People's Congress of the PRC and effective as of July 1997. Under colonial rule, Hong Kong inherited a British-style legal system. English common law formed the foundation, and the British tradition of the Rule of law and the independence of the judiciary were transplanted to Hong Kong. In the post-War era, the people of Hong Kong enjoyed relatively more civil liberties than did the people of mainland China and Taiwan. Since the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, the legal system of Hong Kong was further liberalized, and the political system partially democratized. Following the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, the British colonial government introduced into Hong Kong's constitution a Bill of Rights for the purpose of boosting residents' confidence in Hong Kong's future. Since the enactment of the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, the courts of Hong Kong have developed a solid body of case law on the protection of human rights, and have begun to exercise the power of judicial review of legislation. The era of constitutional adjudication thus began in Hong Kong. After the establishment of the SAR of Hong Kong in 1997, the judiciary faced dual challenges of finding a place in the new constitutional order of "one country, two systems" and leading Hong Kong forward in its legal and constitutional development. Delicate issues of Hong Kong's constitutional relationship with the central government in Beijing have arisen, which often underscore the contradiction between the Communist Party-led legal system in mainland China and the tradition of judicial independence and the Rule of law in Hong Kong. ...