In Hong Kong, two British judges who sat on the Court of Final Appeal, the highest court in Hong Kong, have resigned. This is another worrying sign regarding the health and independence of the judiciary in the Special Administrative Region.
Lawrence Collins and Jonathan Sumption were among the few foreign judges who served on a non-permanent basis at the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, but whose presence provided a form of international guarantee of quality and independence. Theoretically, there are still eight foreign judges available to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, but the former judges of the UK Supreme Court have always had a particular prestige.
A Political Resignation
The first judge linked his resignation to the political situation in Hong Kong while adding that he continued to have “the utmost confidence in the Court and in the complete independence of its members.” The second judge indicated that he would comment on his decision at a later time.
This decision certainly follows the chilling judgment handed down last week in the trial of 47 opposition members accused of conspiracy to commit subversion for merely participating in primaries for the 2020 legislative elections. The 300-page judgment, which does not explain the guilty verdict, was considered by several legal experts contacted by RFI as “a disgrace and a dishonor to local justice,” and it bodes very poorly for the expected verdicts in other important trials.
The Independence of Judges Undermined
In 2022, the British government asked its two judges, who also sat on the UK Supreme Court, to resign from their positions, stating that they “could not continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration that has moved away from the values of political freedom and freedom of expression.”
Since the enactment of the National Security Law in June 2020, at least four foreign judges have resigned.