Average age of 37 for top Macau judges

Macau's post-handover Court of Final Appeal will have one of the youngest teams of any supreme court in the world.

The average age of the three judges is just 37 years.

Its president, Sam Hou-fai, who will be the post-handover chief justice, is aged 38 and became a judge only two years ago.

His two colleagues are Chu Kin, 30, with five years' experience and Viriato Manuel Pinheiro de Lima, 45, from Portugal, who has 20 years' experience.

Judge Pinheiro de Lima cannot hold the top post because he is not Chinese. All three are now members of the Court of First Instance.

Judge Sam was born in Zhongshan, Guangdong and studied law in Beijing and Portuguese culture and language in Portugal.

He is a graduate of Macau's training centre for judges and public prosecutors and joined the bench in 1997.