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"We must not forget that ours is a common law jurisdiction and that the common law is founded on English," he said. "Let us not forget too," he added, "that Hong Kong is, will, and should remain an international business and financial centre where English is the main medium of communication."
"Equally, we must not forget that even our local lawyers are trained in English and probably think in English too," he added.
Nevertheless, the steering committee was taking a pragmatic step-by-step approach with a view to putting in place, as far as possible, a bilingual system in court proceedings before July 1, 1997. It had drawn up a tentative strategy for the phased implementation of the use of Chinese in the District Court and above.
Sir Ti Liang said the steering committee had also studied closely the feasibility of using simultaneous interpretation with the aim of achieving a truly bilingual system.
"The findings indicate that whilst simultaneous interpretation is feasible for some parts of a trial, it is well-nigh impossible for the evidence stage which constitutes the crux of a trial," he said.
"Nevertheless, bearing in mind that appeal cases do not normally involve the giving of evidence, the steering committee has recommended that a limited pilot scheme on providing simultaneous interpretation for the hearing of appeal cases should be launched to ascertain its feasibility."
On the localisation of the Bench, Sir Ti Liang said: "Currently, the Judiciary is over 45% localised. This is not far from our target of achieving an overall localisation of 50% by 1997. And I am confident of meeting this target.
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However he pointed out that the Judiciary environment is fundamentally different from the Civil Service as judges had security of tenure as the "cornerstone of the independence of the Judiciary. There is therefore no question of removing an expatriate judge simply to make room for a local judge. After all, the Judiciary still needs to recruit the best legal brains both locally and overseas in the foreseeable future."
"The international dimension of the bench is a strength rather than a weakness of our Judiciary. Indeed this factor is relevant to the argument over the composition of the future Court of Final Appeal," he added.
On the "quiet management revolution" within the Judiciary, the Chief Justice paid tribute to his new Judiciary Administrator, Ms Alice Tai.