Pan-democrats hope to meet candidate for chief justice
Lawmakers should be given the chance to meet the candidate selected as the next chief justice so that they could deliberate whether to endorse the appointment, pan-democrats said yesterday.
But as the retirement of Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang has triggered a succession process unprecedented since the handover, Beijing loyalists said the appointment should not be politicised and any interviews would be inappropriate.
'Perhaps people will not accept dragging a judge to be grilled in Legco,' Civic Party leader Audrey Eu Yuet-mee said, a day after Li, 60, announced that he would seek early retirement next September to provide an orderly succession.
'But something can be worked out as long as the meeting with the person will in no way impede judicial dignity.'
Independent democrat Cyd Ho Sau-lan said the legislature had a duty to learn where the future chief justice stood on issues of human rights and constitutional matters. Leung Kwok-hung, of the League of Social Democrats, said the candidate must be thoroughly questioned, as public interest was at stake.
Under Article 90 of the Basic Law, the chief executive shall obtain the Legislative Council's endorsement after a candidate is recommended to him by the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, before he reports to Beijing. But when Li was appointed in 1997, the provisional legislature did not hold any hearings.
The government is expected to table the endorsement request to Legco in the form of a motion, where lawmakers can scrutinise the appointment in a subcommittee and meet the candidate before voting.
Ip Kwok-him, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said any hearing would be inappropriate. 'I don't want to use the term 'rubber stamp', but we are not in the US, where top judges can be grilled by congressmen.'
The current appointment commission is chaired by the chief justice himself, while the secretary for justice is an ex officio member.
Other members include Chief Judge Geoffrey Ma Tao-li, Court of Final Appeal judge Mr Justice Roberto Ribeiro, Mr Justice Louis Tong Po-sun, former Bar Association chairman Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, former Law Society president Michael Lintern-Smith, University of Hong Kong vice-chancellor Tsui Lap-chee, former executive councillor Rosanna Wong Yick-ming, and Chinese University council chairman Edgar Cheng Wai-kin.
The law states that anyone who is considered a candidate, and expresses a willingness to be considered, must take no part in the deliberations. In this case, both Ma and Wong may have to absent themselves from the discussions if they are genuine contenders.
