XN000022-1997-01-22 — Page 12

-

1 -

Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Following is a speech by the Attorney General, Mr Jeremy Mathews, in moving the second reading of the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997 in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Mr President,

I move that the Administration of Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997 be read the second time. The Bill aims to amend seven Ordinances which relate to the administration of justice and which need revision or improvement, and to repeal eight Ordinances which are no longer needed or do not suit Hong Kong's present circumstances. The main elements of the Bill are as follows.

Part II of the Bill amends the Supreme Court Ordinance, the District Court Ordinance, the Small Claims Tribunal Ordinance and the Coroners Ordinance to modernize the qualifications for judicial appointment under those Ordinances.

At present, some of the professional qualifications and post-qualification experience required for judicial appointment contain colonial connotations. For example, under section 5 subsection (1) of the District Court Ordinance, no person shall be appointed to be a District Judge unless, among other matters, "he is qualified to practise as an advocate or as a solicitor in a court in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland or some other part of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland having unlimited civil or criminal jurisdiction in that country". There are similar provisions in the Small Claims Tribunal Ordinance and the Coroners Ordinance. Furthermore, under section 9 subsection (2) of the Supreme Court Ordinance, service as a member of the Colonial Legal Service, the Legal Branch of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service, or Her Majesty's Overseas Judiciary is recognized as relevant experience in the consideration of a person's qualification for appointment as a judge of the Supreme Court. It is necessary to modernize these outdated provisions.

We propose to replace those overseas qualifications by a standard requirement that, to be eligible for judicial appointment, an applicant who is not qualified to practise in Hong Kong as a barrister or solicitor must be qualified to practise as an advocate in a court in another common law jurisdiction. This is consistent with Article 92 of the Basic Law, which provides that judges and other members of the judiciary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be chosen on the basis of their judicial and professional qualities and may be recruited from other common law jurisdictions, and will also assist Hong Kong in retaining its links with the common law world.