Challenge and change, but it's mostly business as usual

After a quick tour of the courts to witness justice in the SAR for the first time, a visiting Australian barrister returned his verdict: 'Business as usual.' Peter Kennedy-Smith, more used to the legal system in Sydney, said: 'It is exactly what I would have expected to see before July 1, 1997. The only difference is the five stars on the wall.' Given the gloom and doom scenarios common before the handover, these observations would be music to the ears of Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang.

The SAR's court system was always going to be judged less on what had changed and more on what had not changed.

But while uncertainty over its short-term future has diminished, and in most important respects it remains untouched, the first year has not been short of controversy, challenge or change.

Along with the new Chief Justice came a new Court of Final Appeal, a new constitution and a new set of names and titles.

Two monumental battles over the Basic Law, one of which threatened to bring down the entire system, were to give the public its first opportunity to judge the judges of the new era.

Meanwhile, the legal profession continued to get to grips with new terminology, technology, new laws, and, in terms of court proceedings, another language, as the number of cases conducted in Cantonese steadily increased.