Mr. Kinne
Mr. Laird Laird
with (2)
Reference......
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Appointments to the Supreme Court from the Hong Kong Bar
The Governor has written to us suggesting the time is right to issue a Circular to members of the Judiciary and of the Government's three legal departments informing members of the possibility of future appointments from the Hong Kong Bar to the Supreme Court.
2.
The difficulty which faces us in connection with such appointments arises from the need to wigh two opposing aspects of the public interest, namely:
A. The advantages of making an occasional appointment from
the Bar to a Supreme Court Bench which is entirely
composed of Service judges, since such an appointee would have much greater experience of private practice than the average Service judge.
against
B. The disadvantages of resentment and loss of morale
caused among the Public Service by decreased promotion prospects brought about by such appointments from outside
the Service.
3. No one has suggested that appointments from the Bar, in themselves, would not be a good thing, but the debate
1968/9 has centred on deciding suitable criteria on which they
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20 1968/90
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could be made. Sir Michael Gass suggested three :
A. Appointments from the Bar should only be made when
'officers of sufficient calibre were not available in the
Judicial & Legal Service'.
B. A suitable member of the Hong Kong Bar was prepared to
accept appointment.
C. The circumstances were such that the appointment(s)
would not constitute a legitimate cause of grievance to members of the Judicial & Legal Service.
'B' presents no problem. 'A' if accepted would rule out any appointment anyway. There should always be competent people in the Public Service suitable for promotion. But as Sir James McPetrie pointed put on I April, 1969, 'we could not agree to a firm condition to this effect(i.e.'A' if..the object..of making an appointment from the Bar was to introduce onto the Bench a Judge whose professional experience was of a different kind from that of the
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