Hong Kong courts will need chief executive’s permission to accept foreign lawyers for national security cases as part of legal changes triggered by Jimmy Lai’s trial
- Chief executive’s rulings to govern all cases, criminal and civil, related to national security, Department of Justice proposes
- Media tycoon Jimmy Lai applies to court for ruling that British lawyer can still appear at his national security trial
Hong Kong courts will need the city’s leader permission before a foreign lawyer is allowed to take on a national security case and they will have to reject an application if the chief executive ruled against it, according to landmark legal amendments proposed by the Department of Justice.
The chief executive’s rulings, to be issued as certificates, would govern all cases, criminal and civil, related to national security, according to the legislative document made public on Monday.
The amendments were prepared after a legal interpretation handed down by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s top legislative body, in December.
The interpretation, which left decisions in Hong Kong’s hands, came after media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying hired British King’s Counsel Timothy Owen to represent him at his trial on national security charges.
Lai on Monday applied to the Court of First Instance to ask it to declare that it would not let Beijing’s interpretation – which came after an earlier Court of Final Appeal decision sided with the defendant – affect his chances of keeping Owen as his counsel.
