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SCMP Reporter

THE Judiciary is considering appointing solicitors directly as High Court judges to speed up the localisation programme, it was revealed yesterday.

  The Chief Justice, Sir Ti Liang Yang, said he had no ''doctrinal objection'' to solicitors joining the bench, but it would be difficult to vet them as they would not have appeared in court as often as barristers.

  ''This is something we and the Law Society are working to overcome,'' he said.

  The Law Society was offering information on the recent British experience of appointing solicitors to the bench, he added.

  Law Society chairman Roderick Woo Bun said there were many ways to assess a solicitor's suitability, including evaluation in the field and barristers' appraisals.

    Such a change will entail the amendment of the Supreme Court Ordinance which governs the appointment of High Court judges.

  Sir Ti Liang admitted that the pace of localisation at the senior level of the Judiciary was slow and said he would explore all ways and means to speed up the process.

  At the moment, 43 per cent of all judicial officers are local with 10 local High Court judges.

  Sir Ti Liang said he was confident that half of the judicial officers would be local by 1997, but quality rather than the number of locals would be the prime concern.

  The number of locals joining the bench in the Judiciary had accelerated recently, he said. Of the 29 judicial appointments made since January 1992, 23, or 80 per cent, were local officers.

  ''I can assure you that this trend will gather momentum in the next few years,'' Sir Ti Liang said.

  But it was difficult to attract successful barristers to join the Judiciary as most of them were young and at the pinnacles of their careers.

  ''The Judiciary does offer a challenging and meaningful career. The preservation and development of Hong Kong's judicial system is very much, and in time will be entirely, in the hands of local lawyers,'' he said.

  On the Court of Final Appeal, Sir Ti Liang said the ratio of four local judges to one overseas judge was a workable and acceptable model, although he would prefer to have two overseas judges.

  He said it was important to set up the court before 1997 as ordinary citizens needed to know who would be the final arbiter for their disputes.

  In improving the management of the Judiciary, Sir Ti Liang said a new Judiciary administrator at a rank equivalent to a policy secretary would be appointed by the end of this year.

 The administrator should not be subject to the nationality restriction in the Basic Law for other policy secretaries as he would only be an executive rather than a policy maker.

  ''I haven't consulted the Chinese side about this. I know I am the policy maker of the Judiciary. If I am wrong, someone better tell me,'' he said.

  The Judiciary has received applications for the post of Judiciary administrator from 84 local candidates and more than 180 overseas candidates.

 But Sir Ti Liang was criticised on his pledge to speed up localisation by Meeting Point legislator Fred Li Wah-ming.

  Mr Li said localisation in the Judiciary was bound to be slow considering the block of overseas judges in the district courts.

  He foresaw a ''rift'' in the localisation of the district court layer because the promotion prospects of magistrates would be blocked by the overwhelming number of overseas occupants.

  ''It is a great blow for the morale of the junior level magistrates. And would also discourage the private sector lawyer from joining the Judiciary because once they became judges, they could not participate in private practice again,'' he said.



Solicitors set to join Judiciary