National security law: retired Hong Kong judge says it’s ‘reasonable’ for Beijing to take jurisdiction in exceptional cases

Henry Litton swats down fears that law’s Article 55 will be abused, saying wording limits its usage to extremely rare instances

The former Court of Final Appeal judge also reiterates previous assertion that local judiciary has no business attempting to resolve political disputes

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Former judge Henry Litton says Beijing has every right to take jurisdiction of national security law cases in certain circumstances. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 4:32pm, 14 May 2021Updated: 11:58pm, 14 May 2021

Retired judge Henry Litton has defended Hong Kong’s sweeping national security law, saying it was reasonable to include a provision allowing Beijing to exercise jurisdiction in exceptional cases.

Litton, a judge at the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 1997 to 2015, also doubled down on his assertion in a Post opinion piece last September that the judiciary must reinvent itself for the times rather than “applying obscure norms and values from overseas”.

Speaking at a Friday webinar organised by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, Litton said the judiciary was, to its detriment, becoming a venue for resolving and debating political disputes.

Former British Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer last week said Beijing’s ability to take jurisdiction in some Hong Kong cases was evidence of the rule of law weakening. Photo: Getty Images

“A courtroom is a place where you determine rights and liabilities, it is not a debating hall for dialogue between counsels who come in with piles of books … [It is for] discussion of a little problem occurring in a little place called Hong Kong. The focus is completely wrong,” he said.

“The law … must have a cutting edge. You can’t just have a judgment which just eventually dissolves into a cloud of words.”