Overseas judges leaving top Hong Kong court ‘only natural’: ex-justice chief

The recent departure of several overseas judges from Hong Kong’s top court was “only natural” as those in the first batch appointed nearly three decades ago are already aged 80 years or older, a former justice chief has said.

Elsie Leung Oi-sie, the first secretary for justice after Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, when the judges joined the court, also said on Monday that the city should look into cultivating judicial talent locally to reduce reliance on outsiders.

Leung, who previously served as a deputy director of the Basic Law Committee, also urged Hong Kong legislators to improve their standards, noting that many “political novices” of varying levels of ability had emerged following Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul.

She was speaking at a legal forum in Beijing organised by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which centred on the national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong nearly five years ago in the wake of months of anti-government protests.

Leung accused some foreign forces of smearing Hong Kong’s judicial system by targeting the national security law as well as its domestic counterpart, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, enacted in March last year.