Hong Kong court rejects second attempt to get mask ban overturned, but calls for urgent hearing into opposition lawmakers judicial challenge
- High Court judge Mr Justice Godfrey Lam says judicial challenge should be heard before end of October
- Lawyer Gladys Li says city chief Carrie Lam bypassed the legislature when she imposed mask ban
A Hong Kong court has rejected a second attempt to suspend the government’s anti-mask law but called for an urgent hearing as 24 opposition lawmakers filed a legal action they dubbed “the last battle between authoritarianism and the rule of law”.
High Court judge Mr Justice Godfrey Lam Wan-ho refused a temporary injunction of the Prohibition on Face Covering Regulation, enacted through the city’s emergency law on Saturday. The judge will give his reasons on Tuesday.
But Lam said the judicial challenge filed by the lawmakers must be heard by the end of October, an accelerated process the legislators called “a rare move”. The government had initially suggested the hearing take place a year from now.
“Obviously the court also sees that this case raises extremely important constitutional issues,” said Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, a lawmaker for the legal functional constituency who led the judicial challenge.
While Kwok called it a battle between “authoritarianism and the rule of law”, another lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching said it was “the very last constitutional fight on our part in the name of law”.