Hong Kong justice minister downplays departure of foreign judges, says numbers ‘not main point'
Hong Kong's justice chief has downplayed the departure of foreign judges in recent years, saying it is not about their numbers but whether the judges have 'a good international reputation.'
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam told Cable News in an interview published on Monday that the city's foreign judges system was still effective.
'There are new [foreign] appointed judges who are willing to join. Would you say [the system] is useless?' Lam said in Cantonese.
'If they think they wouldn't make any contribution if they were to come here, [I] believe they would not come to Hong Kong to help,' he added.
The top official's comments follow a recent exodus of foreign judges from the city's top court.
The most recent departure was former Australian justice Robert French, who resigned in April and said the role of foreign judges in the court had become 'arguably cosmetic.'
In June, a New Zealand judge, William Young, joined the city's Court of Final Appeal (CFA). There are currently six overseas judges in the top court, compared with 15 at its peak.
Lam told Cable News that the number of foreign judges was 'not the main point.'
'It's about what type of people come, and whether they have a good international reputation,' he said.
The justice minister also dismissed Hong Kong's fall in the global rule of law index.
'Regarding human rights and freedoms, I believe that their ranking of Hong Kong… does not reflect the actual situation. This might be an issue of external perception,' he said, adding that Western countries often did not have a 'comprehensive' judgement of Hong Kong.
Top court exodus
Since the CFA's establishment in 1997, it has sporadically extended invitations to judges from other common law jurisdictions to join its panel. This practice has been regarded as a testament to the international community's trust in the city's judicial system.
Last year, however, the apex court lost five judges. Anthony Murray Gleeson from Australia did not renew his term when it ended in February 2024, citing old age; UK judges Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins quit in June 2024 before their terms ended; while Canada's Beverley McLachlin and the UK's Nicholas Phillips did not extend their terms.
Sumption wrote an opinion piece for the Financial Times just days after his resignation, saying Hong Kong was 'slowly becoming a totalitarian state.' Judges operate in an 'almost impossible political environment created by China,' he said.
Before the recent string of departures, two British judges in 2022, Robert Reed and Patrick Hodge, quit the CFA, citing the erosion of political freedoms.
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