Basic Law expert Alan Hoo 'clarifies' view on Chinese-only judges
Basic Law expert accuses the city's media of distorting his comments at a legal seminar
The chairman of the Basic Law Institute, Alan Hoo SC, has clarified that he did not suggest or agree with the idea that all judges of the Court of Final Appeal should be Chinese nationals.
His remarks came days after Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung and the Bar Association rejected the idea.
The suggestion to exclude overseas judges in the city's top court was floated by Cheng Jie, an associate professor of law at Tsinghua University, at a November 4 Basic Law seminar in Hong Kong, where Hoo was a guest speaker. Neither Yuen nor the association named Hoo or Cheng in their statements.
Hoo said yesterday of Cheng's idea that all Court of Final Appeal judges should at least be Hong Kong permanent residents: "I just thought what she said was a valid question."
Ten of 15 non-permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal are from other common-law jurisdictions, and Cheng was widely seen as calling for a shake-up of the current arrangement.
Hoo clarified that he disagreed with Cheng's view that the posts should be restricted to Chinese nationals, as this would require amending the Basic Law. He also opposed Cheng's idea of turning the city's highest court into a national court.
