High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People`s Republic of China, or simply Hong Kong Basic Law, serves as the constitutional document of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People`s Republic of China (PRC). The leading document in the law of Hong Kong, it was adopted on 4 April 1990 by the Seventh National People`s Congress (NPC) of the People`s Republic of China, and went into effect on 1 July 1997 (replacing the Letters Patent and the Royal Instructions) when this former colony of United Kingdom was handed over to the PRC.