My Take | Absence of a foreign judge for Jimmy Lai case raises questions
- Overseas jurists are an important part of the Hong Kong’s legal system. Yet only locals will be on the bench when the top court first considers the National Security Law
The selection of judges to hear court cases rarely stirs much interest beyond legal circles. But the composition of the bench for tomorrow’s eagerly awaited hearing in Hong Kong’s top court is different.
This will be the first time the Court of Final Appeal considers the controversial National Security Law. The defendant, seeking bail while awaiting trial for fraud and colluding with foreign forces, is media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
The choice of judges for the top court’s cases is usually easy to predict. The chief justice sits with three permanent judges of the final court and one part-time judge. The part-timer can be local or from overseas. But a judge flown in from abroad has featured in almost all cases heard by the court.
This time, it is different. Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung will be joined by only two permanent judges, Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok. There is a vacancy for the third, created by Cheung’s elevation to top judge this month. It has been known for more than a year the vacancy would arise. It is surprising it was not filled immediately.
With only two permanent judges in place, a local part-time judge fills the gap on the bench. That still leaves the fifth spot, usually taken by a big-hitter from overseas. But for Lai’s case, another local judge has been selected instead.
The issue is not whether these judges can be relied on to do justice. They can. The two local part-timers are Patrick Chan Siu-oi and Frank Stock. Chan was a permanent judge on the top court until 2013. Stock, born in Rhodesia and trained in England, came to the city in 1978. He served as a government lawyer, including as solicitor-general, before joining the judiciary in 1991. They will, no doubt, apply the law freely, fairly and independently.