Are they quitting because they finally see that justice is almost completely impossible in the judicial system of post-2020 Hong Kong and no longer want to be a part of it? Or because at their age, they’re ready to pack it in? Or for some other reason?
The Independent reports (“Two British judges quit top Hong Kong court amid pro-China crackdown on dissent,” June 6, 2024):
Lord Jonathan Sumption, 75, and Lord Lawrence Collins, 83, said they had resigned from the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal this week.
It comes after The Independent reported that the judges were paid £40,000 with flights, accommodation and travel expenses, to sit on the court for up to a month at a time. Lord Sumption and Lord Collins were two of five British judges—all of whom are retired from their British roles—listed as overseas non-permanent judges for the Court of Final Appeal, who could be selected at any time to sit on cases.
Lord Collins, who has served since 2011, cited the “political situation” in Hong Kong as his reason for stepping down from the court. Lord Sumption, who was appointed to the court in 2019, told The Independent he would make a statement next week about his resignation.
Sumption is mum about his motives for now. But Collins tells the newspaper that although he has resigned from the court “because of the political situation in Hong Kong…I continue to have the fullest confidence in the court and the total independence of its members.”
He wouldn’t be making a point of stressing his confidence (“fullest confidence,” which is the highest degree of confidence) in the court and in the independence (“total independence,” which is the highest degree of independence) of persons continuing to serve on the court if he had no reason to feel the opposite.
Just a week ago, the judicial system in which Collins pretends to have such great confidence thanks to the judges’ great independence—not answerable to the Chinese Communist Party in any way despite “the political situation in Hong Kong”—convicted 14 pro-democracy activists of “subversion” for attempting to commit democracy.
In an opinion piece contending that “Beverley McLachlin’s continued tenure on Hong Kong’s court is an ongoing disgrace,” Robyn Urback notes that a new report “is only the latest to urge the nine foreign non-permanent judges currently serving on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA) to step down. Authored by activists Alyssa Fong and Samuel Bickett, the report makes the case that Hong Kong’s nominally independent judicial system was compromised by the introduction of the national security law in 2020, and Article 23 in 2024, which gives authorities expanded powers of detention, prosecution and imprisonment. The report’s authors argue that foreign judges ‘lend their prestige to a justice system that has been undermined and co-opted by Beijing in its relentless efforts to exert total control over Hong Kong.’ ”
The Independent mentions the pay plus expenses collected by the non-permanent British judges sitting on Hong Kong’s high court. As things stand now, they shouldn’t be paid a nickel a year. But if they were in fact willing to rule justly regardless of the CCP’s delusions and mandates, it would be okay to pay them a million dollars an hour.
