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court of appeal, his post would have to be treated in the same way, and this might be a little awkward if the Governor wants Mr Roberts to succeed Sir Geoffrey Briggs on the latter's retirement. Nevertheless the members of the court of appeal will have been carefully selected at a relatively high age, and may well be worth keeping after 62. As regards the District Judges, the age of 55 does seem rather low, but perhaps the answer here is that a man who is worth keeping after that age is likely to be made a Supreme Court Judge before he attains it.
(c) Contract appointments. Supreme Court judges have security of tenure under the Letters Patent until the retiring age of 62 and I should favour giving District judges security of tenure by Ordinance until their retiring age of 55 unless previously removed from office for inability or misconduct following an enquiry. I think we should also consider whether magistrates could be given some greater formal security of tenure and I have already mentioned this matter in correspondence with the Chief Justice. One possibility (which I did not mention to him) would be to give them a statutory security of tenure until age 55, or the expiration of fixed period of appointment, unless previously removed from office for inability or misconduct. Failing that, I think the forms of contracts and the service regulations should be revised so as to secure the same effect. While they may be perfectly secure in practice, I doubt if it is right for a magistrate serving on contract to be liable to be dismissed upon notice during the currency of the contract, nor for a career magistrate to be liable to compulsory retirement at any time after attaining 45 under the Pensions Ordinance.
(d) Pensions. We looked into this matter about two years ago but nothing very definite emerged. If, as suggested above, it were possible to appoint Supreme Court or District Judges drawn from the Bar for fixed terms of say ten or fifteen years, they would probably need to earn a pension at a rather higher rate than civil servants can under the present pensions regulations.
(e) Pay and leave entitlement - expatriates and local officers. The different earning rates for leave have certainly caused some discontent for instance Mr Justice Simon Li has expressed himself strongly on the matter in the local press. I can sympathise with a local magistrate, District judge or Supreme Court judge who sees his expatriate colleagues taking more paid leave every year than he is allowed to do, especially if he works as hard as they when not on leave. However I imagine it would be very difficult to change the rules for local judges and magistrates without disturbing the rest of the public service.
7.
Style of address for District Judges (paragraph 12)
I had a letter about this from the Chief Justice in November and sent it to Protocol and Conference Department for advice, which has however not yet been forthcoming in spite of a reminder. Although I gather from the Chief Justice that most of the District Judges are not very concerned, one of the new appointees (Mr de Basto) has made represen- tations to him. If formal steps could be taken to sanction use of the style "His Honour Judge So and So", accompanied perhaps by putting the District Judges into the table of precedence, this might be a good idea.
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