The Duty of Hong Kong Courts to Follow the NPCSC’s Interpretation of the Basic Law : Are There Any Limits?

The Court of Final Appeal repeated in Yau Wai Ching v Chief Executive of HKSAR its position as stated in a few previous cases that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) can clarify and supplement the Basic Law through its interpretation. This article questions that position. Through examining the evolution of the NPCSC’s legislative interpretation authority, this article argues that the enactment and implementation of the Legislation Law has imposed limits on the NPCSC’s authority to supplement the Basic Law through legislative interpretation. It further discusses the interaction between the NPCSC and the CFA in the interpretation of the Basic Law and makes a comparison with the mechanism to resolve conflict in interpretation between national courts and the European Court of Human Rights with regard to the European Convention on Human Rights. This article adds a novel intellectual approach to a very thorny issue and proposes some alternatives to resolve possible conflict between the NPCSC and the CFA with regard to the interpretation of the Basic Law.