Hong Kong rule of law ‘profoundly compromised’, says British judge
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The resignations have damaged the idea that having foreign jurists on Hong Kong's top court helps protect the rule of law.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – The rule of law in Hong Kong is “profoundly compromised” in areas of the law where the government has strong opinions, a British judge who recently resigned from the top Hong Kong appeals court said on June 10.
Mr Jonathan Sumption is one of two British judges who resigned last week
Some Hong Kong lawyers say the resignations and highly rare criticism challenge the assumption long held by some legal professionals that having foreign jurists on Hong Kong’s top court helps protect the city’s international image after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong
Explaining his eventual decision to resign, Mr Sumption said the city’s authorities were paranoid about political dissent.
“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,” Mr Sumption wrote in an editorial published on the Financial Times website.
Mr Sumption told the BBC on June 11 that the 14 convictions were “the last straw”, and a “major indication of the lengths to which some judges are prepared to go to ensure Beijing’s campaign against those who have supported democracy succeeds”.
He said that some judges quit on their own, but that the current president and deputy president of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, who resigned from Hong Kong’s judiciary in 2022, did so “under pressure from the UK government”.
Hong Kong’s Chief Justice Andrew Cheung in a statement thanked Mr Sumption for his past work, while noting that “a tension often exists between protection of fundamental rights and safeguarding national security, both of which the Hong Kong judiciary is firmly committed to doing”.
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee disagreed with Mr Sumption’s comments and said judges did not have expertise in political matters.
He also accused Britain and other countries of attempting to interfere in the city’s legal affairs.
The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say the law is necessary and has brought stability.
“Some UK officials and politicians try to weaponise the UK’s judicial influence to target China and HK SAR (Hong Kong),” Mr Lee told reporters. “A judge is entitled to his personal political preferences, but that is not a judge’s area of professional expertise.”
While some departing foreign judges on the top court have voiced concerns at Hong Kong’s tightened security laws, none has gone as far as Mr Sumption.
The resignations swell the number of British jurists who have severed ties with Hong Kong’s highest court amid a years-long crackdown on dissent under the mainland’s national security law.
Another judge on the court, Justice Beverley McLachlin, announced on June 10 that she would step down
Justice McLachlin’s statement expressed confidence in her peers’ independence and “determination to uphold the rule of law”.
Britain, which handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, has said the security law that punishes offences like subversion with up to life imprisonment has been used to curb dissent and freedoms.
Many of the city’s democratic campaigners have been arrested, detained or forced into exile, civil society groups have been shuttered and liberal media outlets forced to close.
In May, 14 pro-democracy activists were found guilty
The verdicts in Hong Kong’s biggest trial against the democratic opposition came more than three years after police arrested 47 democratic activists in dawn raids on homes across the city.
“The real problem is that the decision is symptomatic of a growing malaise in the Hong Kong judiciary,” Mr Sumption wrote. REUTERS
