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Provisional Legislative Council
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== 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.<ref name="Yap2007">{{cite journal |last1=Yap |first1=Po Jen |title=Interpreting the Basic Law and the Adjudication of Politically Sensitive Questions |journal=Chinese Journal of International Law |date=2007 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=543β564 |doi=10.1093/chinesejil/jmm030}}</ref>{{rp|546}} The legality of the PLC was challenged in the case ''HKSAR v Ma Wai Kwan''<ref name="MaWaiKwan">''HKSAR v Ma Wai Kwan, David'' [1997] HKLRD 761 (CA).</ref> decided by the [[Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)|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.<ref name="Yap2007"/>{{rp|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.<ref name="Chen2006">{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Albert H. Y. |year=2006 |title=Constitutional Adjudication in Post-1997 Hong Kong |journal=Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=627β682|url=http://digital.law.washington.edu/dspace-law/bitstream/handle/1773.1/633/15PacRimLPolyJ627.pdf|access-date=6 December 2018}}</ref>{{rp|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.<ref name="Chen2006" />{{rp|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 [[Constitution of the People's Republic of China|Chinese constitution]] during the trial.<ref name="MaWaiKwan"/>{{rp|352β353}} The decision in ''Ma Wai Kwan'' was upheld by the [[Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong)|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 [[United Kingdom Parliament|Parliament]] reflected [[parliamentary supremacy]], a doctrine borne out of unwritten constitutional systems.<ref name="Chan1997">{{cite journal |last1=Chan |first1=Johannes |title=The Jurisdiction and Legality of the Provisional Legislative Council |journal=Hong Kong Law Journal |date=1997 |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=374β387|url=https://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/75020/1/content.pdf}}</ref>{{rp|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 [[Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917|Letters Patent]] and the [[Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917|Royal Instructions]], Chan questioned whether parliamentary supremacy still fully applies in Hong Kong after 1997.<ref name="Chan1997"/>{{rp|377}} <!-- == Criticisms == {{criticism-section|date=December 2018}} The PLC was criticised for its lack of legitimacy and representation. The replacement of a (partially) democratically elected legislature with a wholly appointed body was regarded by some as a setback to the democratization in Hong Kong. Critics also described the PLC as a rubber stamp of the Chief Executive. <ref>{{cite journal | last=Wong | first=Timothy Ka-ying | date= 1998 | title=The First Legislative Council Election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: Meaning and Impact | journal=Issues & Studies |volume= 34 | issue= 9 | pages=129 }}</ref>-->
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