Letters | Hong Kong can look to Singapore or Commonwealth to fill gaps left by UK judges
- The Hong Kong judiciary should continue to draw talent from other common law jurisdictions to promote judicial independence, while avoiding giving in to nativists sentiments
The UK judges’ withdrawal is detrimental to the vitality and international image of Hong Kong’s judiciary, but the other side of the coin is that it leaves room for exploring appointments from other common law jurisdictions.
I am convinced that the chief justice should consider inviting Singaporean judges to join the bench, especially given their expertise in the areas of arbitration, company and commercial law. As Hong Kong and Singapore are both among the four Asian tigers, Singaporean judges are culturally similar to those of Hong Kong, and their decisions could be more easily adapted to Hong Kong’s social context.
More importantly, such cooperation is not without precedent, as former Court of First Instance judge Anselmo Reyes is currently sitting on the Singapore International Commercial Court. I do not see any problem with doing things the other way round.
Of course, Hong Kong should continue to appoint non-permanent judges from other common law jurisdictions. Although choices from the UK are now restricted to retired judges, the chief justice can still select distinguished overseas judges from Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Some of them are renowned for their strengths in specialised areas like indigenous rights, media law and privacy protection.