Hong Kong’s top judge Geoffrey Ma Tao-li (馬道立) said on Saturday judges should act only on the basis of the law and not be swayed by any other factor, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday, citing Ma’s speech at a conference.
Ma, the Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, made the remarks came a day after his predecessor, Andrew Li (李國能), said the territory needed to defend the independence of the judiciary.
In a policy paper issued in June, China asked Hong Kong judges to be patriotic, stoking concerns over the territory’s independence from Beijing.
Addressing a conference organized by the University of Cambridge Hong Kong and the China Affairs Society, Ma said the “white paper” had triggered discussion on the rule of law, according to the Post.
Hong Kong’s judicial independence is protected by various articles of the Basic Law — the territory’s mini-constitution — such as the stipulation that judicial and professional qualities should be the only criteria in a judge’s appointment, Ma was reported as saying.
Ma said the public could assess whether the territory’s courts remained independent based on four factors: the views of the legal profession on the topic; court transparency; rulings in controversial cases and those involving the government; and whether judgements complied — objectively — with legal principles, the newspaper reported.
“The rule of law with an independent judiciary is universally recognized as a cornerstone of our society,” Li wrote on Friday in a commentary in the Post. “It is a core value which lies at the heart of our separate systems.”
The policy paper has stoked debate in Hong Kong over the territory’s autonomy, granted under the “one country, two systems” arrangement put in place by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平), and has raised concerns over the former British colony’s political stability as a global financial center.
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