LOND
CHANCELLOR
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
•
HOUSE OF LORDS,
SWIA OPW
LAST PAPER
18th December 1978
HKA 373/393/3
RIENTO
9 JAN 1979
PAPEX
Secondment of Judges to Hong Kong
No
1P.P. %/%
haro miw had an opportunity of putting to the bold unan eller
appointments to the High Court might be
the suggestion that additional
made here with a veiw to one or perhaps two of the English High Court judges serving in rotation as members of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong.
Lord Elwyn Jones has given this suggestion careful consideration,
but does not feel able to accept it. He thinks that there are serious
objections of principle to increasing the overall strength of the High Court
Bench here for a purpose for which it was not designed. A relevant consideration is that a High Court judge in England has a very special
Fog. Sion, in that not only does he have extensive powers here but also
te da virtually irremovable from office, save after a very full Parliamentary
edure.
The Lord Chancellor does not think that the number of persons
ngwing this very special position should be increased beyond the needs of
the stitution for which that position was created.
A further consideration de bhat, in the Lord Chancellor's view,
it is desirable to keep the number of High Court judges down to the minimum
required for the proper discharge of their work. Any increase in the overall number of the Bench (and we are already up against the statutory maximum)
must inevitably, to some extent, detract from the status of the office and
the Lord Chancellor attaches the greatest importance to the maintenance
of that status. It is unfortunately true that the pressure of work in
England has led to an appreciable increase in the numbers of judges appointed,
particularly over the last 15 years, The Lord Chancellor is not at all
anxious to add unnecessarily to their number.
(42)