Hong Kong High Court judge Wilson Chan told to retire over repeated plagiarism
Chief Justice Andrew Cheung says Chan’s repeated judicial plagiarism has undermined public confidence in his ability to discharge his duties
The city’s top judge said on Monday that Wilson Chan Ka-shun’s repeated judicial plagiarism had adversely affected the interests of the parties concerned, imposed an unnecessary burden on appellate judicial resources and undermined public confidence in his ability to discharge his duties.
“I have therefore today formally requested Mr Justice Chan to take early retirement from judicial office,” he said.
“Mr Justice Chan has submitted his retirement application accordingly, and I have approved it in the public interest, effective July 31, 2026.”
Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial after finding that Chan had engaged in “impermissible judicial copying” by copying about 95 per cent of the defence counsel’s submissions in his ruling in a 2024 case. The finding prompted Cheung and Chief Judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor to issue him a serious reprimand.
Chan faced a similar reprimand in 2023 after he was found to have incorporated verbatim more than 98 per cent of a plaintiff’s argument in an intellectual property dispute.