The Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 was one of the principal

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

al instruments of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

when she was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Crown colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Council ...

and

dependent territory A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, yet remains politically outside the controlli ...

; the other principal constitutional instruments were the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1960, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1982, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1991 (No. 1), and the

Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917 The Hong Kong Royal Instructions 1917 was one of the principal constitutional instruments of Hong Kong when it was a British Crown colony and dependent territory; the other principal constitutional instruments were the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1 ...

.While other post-1917 letters patent only contain provisions amending the 1917 letters patent, each of these three letters patent contain a stipulation that any act done before the amendment concerned coming into force and contrary to that amendment remains valid. The Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 has been amended many times since its coming into force. The Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 superseded the letters patent issued on 5 April 1843, all subsequent letters patent amending the 1843 one, and the letters patent issued on 19 January 1888 (which replaced the 1843 letters patent and all those amending the 1843 one). The 1917

letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, tit ...

, as amended from time to time, remained part of the basis for Hong Kong's system of government until the transfer of the territory's sovereignty on 1 July 1997 to the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones an ...

. Issued under the

royal prerogative The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in t ...

, the letters patent was the formal legal basis of the office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief, the Executive Council, and the Legislative Council. After the transfer of sovereignty to China, the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 ceased to have legal effect, as it is superseded by the new Basic Law.

Footnotes

External links

Full text of the Hong Kong Letters Patent 1917 as of 30 June 1997Full texts of all Hong Kong Letters Patent

History of Hong Kong Law of Hong Kong Defunct constitutions {{HongKong-hist-stub

See also

Footnotes

External links