National security law: ex-chief justice Geoffrey Ma defends role of foreign judges in Hong Kong, argues they should help enforce mini-constitution
- Ma was speaking in a webinar in which legal veterans debated the judicial implications of Beijing-imposed legislation, with one critic calling city’s legal system a ‘charade’
- Other speakers counter city’s system is not broken and that it has become a ‘political sport’ for Western detractors to say so at expense of residents
Former Hong Kong chief justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li has defended the role of foreign judges in the city, arguing they should continue to sit on the bench and help enforce the mini-constitution which he described as the basis of judicial independence.
In his first major public engagement since stepping down in January this year, Ma’s comment appeared to target Western critics who had urged foreign judges in Hong Kong to quit as a matter of protest in the wake of the enactment of the Beijing-imposed national security law.
Ma, Hong Kong’s top judge from September 2010 to January this year, said while critics focused on provisions of the security law that allowed Beijing to exercise jurisdiction over complex cases, they should also take into account its references to human rights and the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
“[The Basic Law] prescribes for an independent judiciary … sets out freedoms and human rights, [and] links it internationally to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” he said.
“All these matters are stated in the Basic Law, reflected in the judicial oath, and when a judge comes [and] is in Hong Kong, that person … is duty-bound indeed, and has taken an oath to enforce the Basic Law.”