Judge Frank Stock 'entirely confident' of courts' independence

Claims judicial independence in Hong Kong is under threat from Beijing can be challenged by the willingness of foreign judges to sit in courts here, a retired Court of Appeal judge says.

Mr Justice Frank Stock, who retired as the court's vice-president in June, said he was "entirely confident" the judiciary would continue to be "highly professional". Stock, who sits in the Court of Final Appeal as a non-permanent judge, made the remarks in an interview with Hong Kong Lawyer, the official Law Society journal.

"Protestations questioning the courts' independence are easy to make," Stock was quoted as saying, "but they can readily be tested by asking whether it is really thought that distinguished members of other jurisdictions would so much as contemplate sitting in this jurisdiction, as they currently do, unless they were entirely satisfied that this was a wholly independent judiciary."

He added: "I am entirely confident that the judiciary will continue to be highly professional, and will continue to attract able people of integrity."

Stock grew up in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) and studied law in England. He made the comments amid growing concern about judicial independence after Beijing released a white paper in June, which categorised the judiciary as part of the administration and said judges had to be patriots.

In the interview, Stock (pictured) said judges did not make rulings for the sake of popularity. "I know that I am not popular for my repeated strictures designed to encourage greater discipline in the practice of criminal law, but I would like to stress that it is not a judge's job to court popularity.