A former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada is retiring from Hong Kong’s top court after her term finishes this summer, city officials said on Monday, making it the third non-permanent member to announce their resignation within a week.
Hong Kong’s judiciary confirmed that Beverly McLachlin will complete her term as a non-permanent overseas judge at Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, with no further details stated.
Canadian news media platform reported McLachlin noted in her statement that she has reached 80 years of age and will retire from that position when her term ends in July. She said she intended to spend more time with her family and she continues to have confidence in the members of the court and their independence, the reports said.
Sumption, 75, wrote in an opinion piece published on Monday that Hong Kong’s rule of law was “profoundly compromised”, while Collins, 83, earlier expressed concerns over the city’s “political situation”.
Jonathan Sumption, who had served as a non-permanent overseas judge on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, described a growing “paranoia of the authorities” and judges being intimidated by a “darkening political mood” in the Asian financial hub in an article published by the Financial Times on Monday.
“Hong Kong, once a vibrant and politically diverse community, is slowly becoming a totalitarian state. The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly,” he wrote. “The least sign of dissent is treated as a call for revolution.”
He wrote that he remained on the court in the hope that the presence of overseas judges would help sustain the rule of law, but “I fear that this is no longer realistic.”
McLachlin and Sumption were the latest of several overseas judges who have quit Hong Kong’s highest court in recent years.
However, the city government expressed its strong disagreement with Sumption’s comments in a lengthy statement Tuesday. It insisted the city’s courts are not under any political pressure from Chinese authorities or the local government when handling cases, and said the rule of law in the financial hub has not declined.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a common law jurisdiction, unlike mainland China. After the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997, non-permanent overseas judges have consistently served on its top court. Fifteen such judges served in 2019. About seven remain following McLachlin’s departure next month.
Andrew Cheung, chief justice of the city’s top court, said in a statement that any suggestion that judicial decisions has or could be compromised is a serious allegation and should not be lightly made. He said there is tension between protecting fundamental rights and safeguarding national security, but the city’s judiciary is committed to both causes.
“It is one thing to disagree with a court’s decision, but it is quite another to suggest that fundamental rights have been compromised because of political concerns,” he said.
The Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee, doubled down in his weekly news briefing, saying the professional duty of judges is to interpret and apply law in accordance with legal principles and evidence, regardless of their political views about a certain law.
Mr Lee said Sumption in 2021 wrote about people’s confusion between democracy and the rule of law and his latest statement appears to be contradictory to his previous stance.
He added that some British officials and politicians have attempted to “weaponize” the U.K. judicial influence to target China and Hong Kong and the city should not allow that.
“It is sad and disappointing that our judges are abandoned by a few overseas counterparts and have been so unfairly treated,” he said.
In 2022 another British judge, Robert Reed, stepped down while saying the administration “has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression.”
Another judge, Lawrence Collins, resigned last week, telling The Associated Press that his departure was “because of the political situation in Hong Kong. But he said he continues “to have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members.”
Rights groups and critics say Chinese authorities’ enactment of a 2020 national security law has eroded Hong Kong’s judicial independence and all but wiped out public dissent. Many pro-democracy activists have been arrested under the law.
In May, a Hong Kong court found 14 pro-democracy activists guilty of conspiring to commit subversion in the city’s biggest national security case to date. They were among 47 activists accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and topple the city’s leader by securing the legislative majority necessary to indiscriminately veto budgets.
The Beijing and Hong Kong governments have insisted that the law has helped bring back stability following huge anti-government protests in 2019.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s first chief justice, Andrew Li Kwok-nang who held the office from 1997 to 2010, after the city's handover to the Central government said on Tuesday that the resignation of three overseas non-permanent judges from Hong Kong's top court as “most regrettable”.
He added that the judges had made valuable contributions to Hong Kong.
Also, the incumbent chief justice, Andrew Cheung Kui-nung on the Tuesday as well expressed his “every confidence” that local appeal courts would continue to act with integrity and professionalism.
Source: AP/ SCMP
加拿大法官將從香港最高法院退休，這是一週內第三位辭去最高職位的法官
香港官員週一表示，加拿大最高法院前首席大法官將於今年夏天任期結束後從香港最高法院退休，這將使其成為一周內第三位宣布離職的非常任理事國。
香港司法機構確認貝芙莉·麥克拉克琳將完成香港終審法院非常任海外法官的任期，但沒有透露更多細節。
加拿大新聞媒體平台報道稱，麥克拉倫在聲明中指出，她已年滿80歲，將於7月任期結束時從這一職位上退休。 報道稱，她說她打算花更多時間陪伴家人，並且仍然對法院成員及其獨立性充滿信心。
75 歲的蘇普申在周一發表的一篇評論文章中寫道，香港的法治“嚴重受損”，而 83 歲的柯林斯早些時候表達了對該市“政治局勢”的擔憂。
曾擔任香港終審法院非常任海外法官的喬納森·薩普森(Jonathan Sumption) 在發表的一篇文章中描述了亞洲金融中心“當局的偏執”日益嚴重，法官受到“日益陰暗的政治情緒”的恐嚇。
「香港曾經是一個充滿活力、政治多元化的社會，現在慢慢變成一個極權國家。 在政府強烈關注的任何領域，法治都會受到嚴重損害。 “最輕微的異議跡像都會被視為呼籲革命。”
他寫道，他留在法庭上是希望海外法官的存在有助於維持法治，但「我擔心這不再現實」。
麥克拉克林和薩普申是近年來退出香港最高法院的幾位海外法官中最新的一位。
然而，市政府在周二的一份長篇聲明中表達了對 Sumption 言論的強烈反對。 它堅稱該市法院在處理案件時沒有受到中國當局或地方政府的任何政治壓力，並表示該金融中心的法治並未下降。
與中國大陸不同，香港是前英國殖民地，是普通法司法管轄區。 1997年香港回歸中國統治後，最高法院一直由非常任海外法官擔任。 2019 年有 15 名此類法官。
香港最高法院首席法官張安德魯在聲明中表示，任何有關司法判決已經或可能受到損害的暗示都是嚴重的指控，不應輕易做出。 他說，保護基本權利和維護國家安全之間存在緊張關係，但香港司法部門致力於這兩個目標。
「不同意法院的裁決是一回事，但暗示基本權利因政治擔憂而受到損害則是另一回事，」他說。
香港領導人李家超在每週新聞發布會上強調，法官的專業職責是根據法律原則和證據解釋和適用法律，無論他們對某項法律的政治觀點如何。
李表示，Sumption 在 2021 年寫了人們對民主和法治之間的混淆，他的最新聲明似乎與他先前的立場相矛盾。
李還表示，一些英國官員和政客試圖將英國司法影響力「武器化」以針對中國和香港，香港不應允許這種情況發生。
他說：“我們的法官被一些海外同行拋棄，並受到如此不公平的對待，這令人悲傷和失望。”
2022 年，另一位英國法官羅伯特·里德 (Robert Reed) 辭職，同時表示政府「背離了政治自由和言論自由的價值觀」。
另一位法官勞倫斯·柯林斯(Lawrence Collins)上週辭職，他告訴美聯社，他的離職是「因為香港的政治局勢」。 但他表示，他仍然「對法院及其成員的完全獨立性充滿信心」。
人權組織和批評者表示，中國當局頒布的2020年國家安全法削弱了香港的司法獨立，幾乎消除了公眾的異議。 許多民主活動人士已被依法逮捕。
今年 5 月，香港一家法院在該市迄今為止最大的國家安全案件中裁定 14 名民主活動人士犯有串謀顛覆罪。 他們是 47 名活動人士之一，被指控試圖透過獲得任意否決預算所需的立法多數來癱瘓香港政府並推翻香港領導人。
北京和香港政府堅稱，該法律有助於在 2019 年發生大規模反政府抗議活動後恢復穩定。
同時，香港回歸中央政府後於1997年至2010年擔任香港首任首席法官的李國能週二表示，香港最高法院的三名海外非常任法官辭職是「最令人遺憾的是」。
他補充說，法官們為香港作出了寶貴貢獻。
此外，現任首席法官張居能週二也表示「完全有信心」地方上訴法院將繼續誠信和專業地行事。
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