Hong Kong judicial independence is safe, former judge Henry Litton says
Ex-top judge dismisses claims from foreign lawyers that the jailing of political activists was a ‘serious threat’ to rule of law in the city
A former top Hong Kong judge said on Wednesday he did “not see any threat to judicial independence” amid concerns in the city and abroad regarding the jailing of three prominent political activists in the city.
Former Court of Final Appeal judge Henry Litton also said it would be “entirely appropriate” for Beijing to suggest in a much-criticised white paper in 2014 that Hong Kong judges should be the city’s “administrators”, if the central government was only implying that judges should “focus on the real issues which trouble the community, and not indulge in esoteric points of law”.
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Litton was the most senior Court of Final Appeal judge after the chief justice during his tenure from 1997 to 2000. He continued to serve as a non-permanent judge during his retirement in 2015.
He was giving a speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club on Wednesday, addressing an audience includingBar Association vice-chairman Robert Pang Yiu-hung SC and Johannes Chan Man-mun, former University of Hong Kong law dean.