TNAG-0262-FCO40-298-Appointments-to-judiciary-of-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 63

HONG KONG BAR ASSOCIATION

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the apex of a legal career and it makes little difference, financially or other- wise, whether a man finds himself a High Court Judge, a judge of the Court of Appeal, or a judicial member of the House of Lords. Secondly, he is financially secure. Thirdly, he is irremovable. These three features underpin the independence which is the hallmark of his office.

County Court judges are also recruited from the Bar.

Although the detail is different, the

principle is the same; they are drawn from the same small profession and enjoy security of tenure and independence."

As recently as the 27th February, 1969 the Lord Chancellor in his presidential address to the Bentham Club stated, inter alia . . . "the higher judiciary are all appointed from the ablest barristers

" and again, "In my opinion it (the integrity of British Justice) is entirely due to our having a divided profession and the higher judiciary being drawn from the Bar."

As is mentioned in the Hong Kong Bar Association's Annual Statement 1969/70, "that (promotions within the judiciary) which must never be allowed to happen in England' is the norm in Hong Kong and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has actively perpetuated this state of affairs, not only by making promotions within the judiciary, but also by making appointments to the Bench from the Colonial Legal Service."

Why is it that in Hong Kong, the most important, affluent and sophisticated of our Colonies, members of the Supreme Court Bench or at least some of them, are not appointed from the practising Bar? You, yourself, are aware of "precedents in other dependent territories (see Restricted Note of a Meeting between yourself and the Bar Committee in Hong Kong on the 30th November, 1964) for making appointments to the Supreme Court from members of the practising Bar".

What is being practised in Hong Kong appears to be a deliberate policy of 'apartheid' based on civil servant/ non-civil servant considerations.

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