SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

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                                    No. A-702
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             LUI KIN-HONG, AKA JERRY LUI, APPLICANT v. UNITED STATES
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                       ON APPLICATION FOR STAY OF MANDATE

                                 [May 12, 1997]

  The application for stay of mandate addressed to JUSTICE BREYER and referred
to the Court is denied. JUSTICE BREYER, with whom JUSTICE STEVENS joins,
dissenting.

  The United Kingdom seeks to extradite petitioner to Hong Kong, where he will
be charged with bribery.  The District Court granted petitioner's request for a
writ of habeas corpus, holding that the extradition treaty between the United
States and the United Kingdom does not now permit his extradition to Hong Kong
because his trial and any subsequent punishment would likely take place under
the authority of the People's Republic of China, a nation with whom the United
States does not have an applicable extradition treaty.  The Court of Appeals for
the First Circuit reversed. Lui now asks this Court for a stay pending a
petition for certioriari.
  The petition for certiorari that Lui intends to file would likely raise three
questions.  First, the treaty with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, 28 U. S. T. 227, as amended, June 25, 1985,  T. I. A. S. No.
12050 (Treaty), grants the United Kingdom the power to seek the extradition of a
fugitive offender.  See Treaty, Article I.  This Court has defined "extradition"
to mean "the surrender by one nation to another . . . which, being competent to
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try and to punish him, demands the surrender."  Terlinden v. Ames, 184
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                               A-702 - APPLICATION

2                             LUI v. UNITED STATES
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U. S. 270, 289 (1902).  Since Hong Kong will revert to the People's Republic of
China on July 1, 1997, and, as the government admits, no trial could be held
before that date, does the United Kingdom have the "competence to try and to
punish" Lui?  And, if not, can it now seek his extradition?
  Second, the Treaty provides that no person extradited shall "be extradited by
[the requesting Party] to a third State."  Does this provision prohibit Lui's
extradition?
  Third, under the terms of 18 U. S. C. SS3184 and 3186, does the Executive
Branch have the exclusive power to interpret these provisions of the treaty?
  In essence, the petitioner says that the United States intends to extradite
him, not to the United Kingdom or to a crown colony of the United Kingdom, for
trial, but rather to the People's Republic of China.  In my view, the papers
accompanying his motion for stay raise questions about the lawfulness of doing
so, at least to the point where I would issue the stay, pending a response from
the Solicitor General.  For that reason I dissent from the Court's denial of the
petitioner's application.