Ref:
HKK.14/19
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street London S.W.1
24 April, 1970
18
Dear Boggis- Reffe,
Practice by retired District Judges in Hong Kong
We had correspondence this year about the application of a District Judge in
Hong Kong, J.T. Williams, to be admitted to practise there on his retirement. The correspondence rests with your letter to me 3632/326 of 18 March.
2.
Although Williams withdrew his application, the case has caused the Chief Justice, Sir Ivo Rigby, to write me a letter (copy enclosed) suggesting that persons who are
appointed as District Judges in future should on appointment be required to give the
same undertaking relating to practice on retirement as is given by a Judge of a
superior court. The reasons for requiring such an undertaking from Judges of superior
courts and the form of the undertaking are set out in Colonial Office circular despatches 531/52 and 12/53 of which I enclose copies. As you will see, paragraph 4
of the despatch of 1952 visualizes that the Secretary of State or the Governor may
grant a retired Judge permission to carry on a consulting practice and this has in
fact sometimes been done.
3.
Williams is in fact the only retired Hong Kong District Judge who has ever applied to be admitted to practise. In 1958, however, Roberts-Wray and Coldstream discussed
whether the undertaking given by Judges of superior courts should also be required on
appointment from Hong Kong District Judges and Judges of courts of intermediate
jurisdiction in other territories. I enclose the record of their discussion and you
will see that on the whole they thought it would be justifiable to require such an
undertaking from Judges of courts of intermediate jurisdiction, though the matter was
evidently not taken any further. Their reasoning, which seems to me sound, was that
the higher one gets in the judicial hierarchy the greater is the objection to return
to the Bar and that at the level of District Judge, Hong Kong or the equivalent the
objection becomes sufficiently strong to justify measures of control.
4. I am disposed to agree in principle with the Chief Justice's suggestion that
undertakings should be required from future appointees to the office of District Judge,
but before we take the matter up with the Governor and Ministers I should like to know
whether you think so too. I think that a District Judge in Hong Kong can fairly be
equated as regards status with a County Court Judge here and by requiring the
H. Boggis-Rolfe, Esq., C.B.E.
LAST
REF.
10
REXY
REF.
20
/undertaking
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