Overseas judges leaving top Hong Kong court ‘only natural’: ex-justice chief
Former secretary for justice Elsie Leung says first batch of overseas judges appointed to Court of Final Appeal in 1997 are aged 80 to 90
The recent departure of several overseas judges from Hong Kong’s top court was “only natural” as those in the first batch appointed nearly three decades ago are already aged 80 years or older, a former justice chief has said.
Leung, who previously served as a deputy director of the Basic Law Committee, also urged Hong Kong legislators to improve their standards, noting that many “political novices” of varying levels of ability had emerged following Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul.
She was speaking at a legal forum in Beijing organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which centred on the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong nearly five years ago in the wake of months of anti-government protests.
Leung accused some foreign forces of smearing Hong Kong’s judicial system by targeting the national security law as well as its domestic counterpart, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, enacted in March last year.