PERHAPS Massachusetts District Court Judge William Young thought he was trying the O.J. Simpson trial. Certainly, his extraordinary ruling that a compensation claim by the family of a woman who drowned in a Tsim Sha Tsui hotel's swimming pool should be heard in the US due to the uncertainties over the future of Hong Kong's legal system would be more at home in that sort of media circus.
It is to be hoped that wiser minds will prevail and that the ruling is referred to a higher court where a judge with a better understanding of the Joint Declaration will realise that, whatever the doubts about the fate of politically related cases after 1997, it is a travesty to suggest that such a run-of-the-mill litigation matter could be affected by the handover.
But it would be wrong to suggest that the problem is solely of Judge Young's making. Those who make exaggerated claims about the threat posed to the rule of law by the Court of Final Appeal accord, not least Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming, must bear part of the blame. As the Governor, Chris Patten, has repeatedly warned, the spreading of such alarmist sentiments only serves to fuel fears about the future.
The Government and legal community are also at fault for not doing more to educate world opinion on how the survival of the common law system in Hong Kong is assured by international agreement until at least 2047. This case should serve as a wake-up call - and prompt a publicity campaign to prevent any other judges from labouring under similar misapprehensions.