local lawyer has said that it is the one thing of the British "worth keeping" in Hong Kong.4. Why should what has
happened in other colonies
-
the survival of the common law
not happen also here in Hong Kong?;
Even in
Secondly, where there are doubts about judicial courage
1997, it is and integrity after 1997, it is possible to point to many instances in British and Commonwealth history, in the United States, Ireland and elsewhere where judges have remained true to the promises given on their appointment. difficult times they have remembered Thomas Fuller's famous words "Be you ever so high, the law is above you". was a humble judge in a Federal trial court whose insistence on the rule of law brought down the President of the United in the world. States, arguably the most powerful man Judicial officers who are here now will accompany Hong Kong Continuity of personnel and of through the transition.
systems will lay down the example of
It
a rights respecting a rights
society which will ever be before the local successors to the
expatriate judges when the last of them has departed;
in which China
Thirdly, there is hope from the terms accepted, before the whole world, the basis of resuming de
facto sovereignty over Hong Kong. of 1984 it promised for fifty years an "independent judicial
power" and respect for
freedoms:
In the Joint Declaration
collection of basic rights and
a
the right to
free speech,
to assembly, to
religion, to choice of occupation, to holding private In the Basic Law of 1990, the National property and so on. People's Congress (NPC) accepted amongst the general principles for the government of Hong Kong an independent judicial power, the safeguard of the rights and freedoms of
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