The outgoing chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association has called on residents to have faith in the judiciary amid a challenging geopolitical environment, defending the city’s judges as “first class” while emphasising that national security cases are just one aspect of the judicial system.
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Senior Counsel Victor Dawes also called on the government to err on the side of more transparency and explanations when implementing the national security legislation to assist public understanding, noting that “perception matters”.
In an interview with the Post last week, he reviewed his three-year stint as chairman of the association, which coincided with a series of high-profile prosecutions under the 2020 national security law and the passing of the city’s domestic security legislation.
Dawes, who took up the leadership of the professional body in 2022 and is set to hand over to his successor Jose-Antonio Maurellet after the association’s annual meeting on Thursday, conceded that Hong Kong was in a “delicate and difficult moment” with a complex geopolitical environment, which had inevitably placed stress on the judiciary.
“We’re certainly in a situation where when the big power sneezes, Hong Kong definitely catches a cold,” he said.
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“It is natural that given the geopolitical situation that judges react to it. I don’t mean that the decision-making process is affected, but it has become a more stressful job compared to the past.”