The turncoat shuffle on the legal floor

IT IS alarming how short people's memories can be, worrying how a U-turn over an issue so crucial to Hong Kong's future as the Court of Final Appeal can pass by with so little controversy.

Yet that is precisely what happened last week, when the Council of the Law Society abruptly reversed the body's three-year-long opposition to the Sino-British 4+1 agreement, and voted to back the Hong Kong Government's bill to establish the Court of Final Appeal on this basis.

The accord, reached in secret by the Joint Liaison Group in 1991, had, until now, been unanimously opposed by leaders of the local legal profession on the grounds that, by limiting the number of foreign judges who can sit on the future court to no more than one, it breaches both the Basic Law and Joint Declaration. As recently as November 10, the Law Society had re-affirmed its opposition to the accord.

That is why Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming was so furious about the U-turn last week, alleging it will send a message to the world that Hong Kong lawyers care little about the rule of law, while a small group of like-minded solicitors are still fighting to try to reverse the council's decision - by forcing an extraordinary general meeting on the issue.

But more notable was the lack of outrage from anyone else. Even the leader of the Legislative Council's 1991 revolt against the 4+1 accord, legal representative Simon Ip Sik-on, had nothing to say about the U-turn - other than that he would clarify his own stance shortly.

Mr Ip is one of many legislators who is almost certain to use last week's decision as an excuse to follow suit in abandoning their previous opposition to the 4+1 agreement.