My Take | All Hong Kong’s foreign judges can – and should – do is call it as they see it
- They are in a difficult position in sensitive cases, likely to face criticism at home if they rule one way and in Hong Kong if they go the other
Should I stay or should I go? The question is one foreign judges on Hong Kong’s top court are increasingly facing, amid calls in their home countries for them to quit.
Retired British judge David Neuberger has come under fire after upholding the convictions of seven opposition figures for taking part in a peaceful but prohibited protest march during the civil unrest of 2019.
The ruling was closely watched following the resignation of two British judges in June, citing Hong Kong’s political environment.
Neuberger, sitting with four local judges, provided a “postscript” to the unanimous ruling, involving former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and six ex-opposition lawmakers.
This was the cue for a wave of criticism in the UK, with Neuberger’s involvement condemned. He has since stepped down from an international advisory body on media freedom, amid pressure to do so. Some critics argued he should, instead, have quit the Court of Final Appeal.
Hong Kong’s last governor Chris Patten, who branded the court’s decision “unjust,” said Neuberger, when sitting in the UK, had been keen to establish that the common law could accommodate fundamental aspects of human rights protection.
