Letters | Hong Kong’s judiciary is the reason we are not yet just another Chinese city

How many places in the world could you take the government of the land to court on a civil matter, and expect to receive a fair trial? Hong Kong sits proudly on this list

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Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in Central. Photo: Warton Li

Published: 6:15am, 8 Sep 2020Updated: 6:15am, 8 Sep 2020

I was gobsmacked to read Mr Henry Litton’s op-ed piece suggesting our judiciary should do more to win the trust of the central government (“For Hong Kong’s sake, the judiciary must regain Beijing’s trust”, September 3). The rule of law is one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable, assets of this city.

How many places in the world could you take the government of the land to court on a civil matter, and expect to receive a fair trial? Hong Kong sits proudly on this list. Without an independent judiciary, contractual agreements are hardly worth the paper on which they are printed.

A good example is the 1999 right of abode case where the Court of Final Appeal ruled against the Hong Kong government. On the question of the right of abode, the Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macau have near identical wording; but Macau’s, promulgated a few years later, states certain exceptions. Hong Kong’s does not.

Instead of amending the Basic Law to cover the perceived omission, the Hong Kong government sought an interpretation from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. The NPCSC essentially said Hong Kong’s Basic Law had exactly the same meaning as Macau’s, despite the missing exceptions.

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Rightly so; our judiciary only ever concerns itself with the law – with adjudicating matters, without fear or favour, based on the plain wording of the law, contracts or any relevant documents. Accordingly, the judiciary has the respect and confidence of the people of Hong Kong.