Sir Ti Liang can't give knighthood back, say experts

Sir Ti Liang Yang will make constitutional history if he tries to hands back his knighthood.

There is no precedent for the act and bemused British constitutional experts suggested the retiring Chief Justice could just stop using his title and revert to plain Mr Yang Ti-liang.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'It is up to the individual if he wants to reject a knighthood or not use it. However, you cannot revoke or renounce a knighthood.' According to Charles Kidd, editor of Debrett's Peerage, the main guide to the British aristocracy, nobody had tried to abandon a knighthood once bestowed.

There are several examples of a knighthood being revoked by the Queen.

Leading financier Jack Lyons was stripped of his knighthood after being convicted in the Guinness share scandal in 1990.

'There are simply no provisions for knighthoods to be handed back. I suppose he'll just have to stop using it,' said Mr Kidd.