Hong Kong will continue to invite foreign judges to its courts and the city’s legal system remains “hard as a rock”, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday amid international concern about the impact of a sweeping national security law.
Worries over the ability of Hong Kong’s judicial system to uphold human rights while applying the new law independently intensified last week when the judiciary said British judge Brenda Hale would step down from the top court next month. read more
Hale, Britain’s former Supreme Court president, is one of 13 overseas non-permanent judges on the Court of Final Appeal, whose presence has long been seen as a symbol of the rule of law after Britain returned its former colony to China in 1997.
Lam, speaking at her regular weekly news conference, said she would not speculate on Hale’s reasons for stepping down when her three-year term expires.
“But I believe the judiciary in Hong Kong is as hard as a rock,” she said. “The chief justice will continue to invite experienced overseas judges” to Hong Kong courts.
The judiciary said last week Hale did not wish to have her appointment extended “for personal reasons”.
In remarks made to a recent legal seminar in Britain, Hale said Hong Kong’s legal system “is functioning in accordance with the rule of law, at least as far as commercial law is concerned”.
“The jury is out of course on how they will be able to operate the new national security law. There are all sorts of question marks up in the air,” she said.
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