Two more British judges have resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA), with one of them citing the city’s “political situation” as the reason.
In a statement issued just before 1 a.m. local time on Friday, Andrew Cheung, chief justice of HKCFA, said he “regrets” the resignations of Lord Sumption and Lord Collins of Mapesbury, who served as the judiciary’s non-permanent judges of the top court.
Mr. Cheung thanked foreign non-permanent judges, including Lord Sumption and Lord Collins, for their contributions to the HKCFA.
He said members of Hong Kong’s judiciary would continue to maintain judicial independence, and that the city would continue to appoint foreign non-permanent judges from common law jurisdictions.
In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, Lord Collins said he had resigned “because of the political situation in Hong Kong,“ but added that he continues to ”have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members.”
Lord Sumption has also confirmed his resignation, telling media outlets he would issue a statement next week.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a common law jurisdiction, unlike mainland China. After it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, non-permanent overseas judges have consistently served on the city’s top court.
However, a number of foreign judges have quit their roles since Beijing’s rubber stamp legislature imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 that has all but wiped out public dissent.
Australia’s James Spigelman stepped down in September 2020, less than three months after the law took effect.
In 2021, Baroness Hale became the first British judge to leave the court since the national security law took effect, although she cited COVID-9 travel restrictions as the main reason.
In 2022, the president and deputy president of the UK Supreme Court, Lord Reed of Allermuir and Lord Hodge, withdrew from HKCFA following discussions with the UK government.
Citing concerns over the national security law, Lord Reed said at the time that he and Lord Hodge had resigned because UK Supreme Court judges could not “continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed.”
Following the resignations of Lord Sumption and Lord Collins, Hong Kong’s leader John Lee expressed regret over the judges’ resignations in a statement. Mr. Lee maintained the human rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law have not changed, nor has the territory’s judicial independence.
The city’s bar association said it strongly believes that their departure would not affect the ability of the apex court in discharging its judicial functions, adding it has “every confidence” in the independence of the city’s judicial system.
The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK), which previously called on foreign judges to quit Hong Kong’s top court, welcomed the news and urged other judges to follow suit.
Alyssa Fong, public affairs and advocacy manager at CFHK, said: “I welcome the news that Collins and Sumption have stepped down. It is astonishing to me that it has taken four years since the imposition of the National Security Law for them to realise that this is the right action to be taking.
“I urge the remaining judges from the UK, Canada, and Australia to follow suit and immediately resign. Hong Kong is sadly no longer a rule-of-law-compliant city, and trials like that of Jimmy Lai expose the erosion of the legal system in Hong Kong.”
“There should be no more attempts to justify why common law judges should sit on the Hong Kong Courts. They must put their commitment to justice and the rule of law over profit, and immediately step down.”
The report says foreign non-permanent judges now “provide little if any benefit to the remaining vestiges of the city’s rights-based order” and their prestige is used to legitimise Hong Kong’s human rights abuses and undermine the city’s rule of law.
