Top British lawyer counsels faith in Hong Kong legal system

The world should have confidence in Hong Kong's judicial independence, as a court took "robust and decisive action" over the release of a student leader amid Occupy Central protests in September, Britain's former attorney general Lord Peter Goldsmith, QC said yesterday.

Goldsmith, now vice-chairman of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, was speaking as a guest at the inauguration ceremony for the Our Hong Kong Foundation, the new think tank founded and chaired by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa.

He was referring to Scholarism leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who was arrested on September 26 for breaking into a forecourt outside the government's headquarters at the end of a protest against Beijing's restrictive framework on political reform. Wong was released unconditionally at the order of a High Court judge after more than 40 hours of detention without charge.

"The world … can take comfort from the fact that in the course of actions concerning the Occupy Central demonstrations [Wong] was freed … against the wishes of the police," Goldsmith said.

He added: "One can take heart about the independence of the Hong Kong judiciary that robust and decisive action was taken by a judge."

Goldsmith also said the presence of so-called overseas judges of distinction in the Court of Final Appeal was "a great strength" of the city's legal system. It allows distinguished foreign judges, especially from Australia and Britain, to serve on the court, as a means to ensure politically independent points of view.