risk of a retreat to parochialism.
But if we work at it in
the community of
the
common
law,
we
can draw upon
each
other's jurisprudence.
In this sense,
severance of the link
to London may actually ensure access to the treasurehouse of jurisprudence in other common law centres.
We in the Pacific
area should become more aware of each other's jurisprudence,
for this is the
the area of the greatest economic potential in
the 21st century. Hong Kong judges and lawyers may forge
closer links with colleagues in the region. Those colleagues
that this ensure
can be
be done. Whether it
for the
should work to
exists in an appellate court
an appellate court or simply in participation in
the exchange of law reports and journals remains
future. But in the common law world, and working on a Bill
of Rights, a judge is never alone. The judge always has the
great intellectual support of those who have gone before and
who labour away on similar problems in other lands. It is
the
system of precedent and the development of
principles by analogous reasoning which is the strength of
tradition gives That
very
our
legal
tradition.
conviction to the judge,
working
courage
and
in lonely chambers,
the problem in
in hand
endeavouring with integrity to solve the
according to law.
It is true that many spectres can be seen in the future
of basic rights in Hong Kong after 1997.
Some arise from the
deficiencies of the political system bequeathed by the
Others derive from the perceived threats of
colonial power.
Candour
absorption in a highly centralised autocracy.
dictates that the events of Tiananmen Square should be
mentioned again. They have led many to be cynical about the
prospects of the rule of law, human rights and the
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