HKFP has this truly depressing news…
Hong Kong’s courts must now obtain a certificate before considering admission for a foreign lawyer. Failure to do so risks a decision by the city’s powerful national security committee, which is chaired by Lee and Beijing’s liaison chief in Hong Kong.
China’s top lawmaking body gave Hong Kong leader John Lee the power on Friday to bar foreign lawyers from national security trials, removing the decision from the city’s courts.
Critics said the decision created a “dual state” in Hong Kong’s justice system and turned its national security committee, controlled by top Hong Kong and Beijing officials, into an “omnipotent authority” that could overthrow any national security rulings.
Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law in 2020 after huge, and sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests rocked the city a year earlier.
The law has since been used to crush dissent and transform Hong Kong’s common law traditions that had differentiated it from China’s opaque, party-controlled courts.
Even under the national security law, Hong Kong courts had been able to admit lawyers from other common law jurisdictions to work in the city, particularly for cases where specific expertise was required.
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Beijing gives Hong Kong leader power to bar foreign lawyers after loss at top court
