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Opinion | As UK judges resign, does Hong Kong really need foreign judges any more?
- Decades after China established the Court of Final Appeal, it could be argued that Hong Kong no longer needs British judges to shore up its reputation
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Few will disagree that the rule of law, encompassing the concept of judicial independence, is the cornerstone of success for Hong Kong. This was true before the handover in 1997, and is true now. It is therefore not surprising that the fact was not lost on the leaders of China and Britain when they negotiated the resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong in the 1980s.
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Some may even say the success of “one country, two systems” depends on the maintenance of judicial independence, so much so that both Annexe I of the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Article 85 of the Basic Law provide that Hong Kong’s courts “shall exercise judicial power independently” and “free from any interference”.
Sadly, the British government seems to be bent on interfering with British judges sitting on our Court of Final Appeal, bringing political pressure to bear on them to resign.
In recent years, the British government has maintained that its judges should not sit on and lend legitimacy to Hong Kong’s top court. This is warped logic. If by that, the British government means legal legitimacy, it is plainly wrong. Hong Kong courts have been established by the Chinese government in the exercise of its sovereign power as a result of the joint declaration.
If the British government means moral legitimacy, is it saying that despite the assurance of Hong Kong’s judicial independence by the joint declaration, it is morally obliged to act contrary to the declaration and interfere with the exercise of judicial power by the Court of Final Appeal?
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Putting aside this rather strange philological question, would forcing British judges to resign from the court in some way affect the independence of the Hong Kong judiciary? Most would agree it is ludicrous to suggest that Hong Kong’s judicial independence depends on the presence or otherwise of one or two judges from Britain.
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Hong Kong’s leader, chief justice voice regret after British judges resign from top court
Hong Kong’s leader, chief justice voice regret after British judges resign from top court
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