HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL — 17th December 1969. 201
SUPREME COURT (AMENDMENT) BILL 1970
THE ATTORNEY General (Mr Roberts) moved the second reading of:-"A bill to amend further the Supreme Court Ordinance."
He said:-Sir, the Full Court of Hong Kong, which deals with the appellate work of the Supreme Court, is composed at present of Supreme Court Judges who are assigned from time to time to sit as members of the Full Court. It is felt that the volume of appellate work is now such that the time has come to give the Full Court a more distinctive and permanent character by the creation of an office of Appeal Judge.
It is intended that the Chief Justice should normally continue to preside over the Full Court as he does at present, the Appeal Judge sitting with him. When the Chief Justice is not available, the Appeal Judge would preside. As a member of the Supreme Court bench, the Appeal Judge would also be available, if required, to sit as a trial judge in the Supreme Court.
It may be that, in time, the amount of appellate work in Hong Kong will justify the creation of a separate Court of Appeal. The · appointment of an Appeal Judge could be said to be a step in this direction, without in any way committing the Government to establish- ing such a court.
Honourable Members will notice that those parts of the bill which relate to the appointment of an Appeal Judge will not come into opera- tion until a date to be appointed by the Governor by a notice in the Gazette. I should, perhaps, also mention that the appointment of an Appeal Judge does not of itself involve the creation of an additional post of Supreme Court Judge.
Clause 4 of the bill introduces new provisions dealing with the temporary appointments of Supreme Court Judges. At present, the Ordinance provides for the appointment of an acting judge where there is a vacancy on the Court or if a substantive judge is temporarily absent and also for the appointment of temporary additional Judges. Instead, it is proposed in future that the Chief Justice should be empowered to appoint Commissioners of the Supreme Court, in the circumstances in which either acting or temporary additional judges are now appointed.
The term "Commissioner" has long been in use in England to describe a person appointed to act as the High Court Judge and its use here will help the public to distinguish clearly between substantive and temporary appointments to the Supreme Court.
Clause 4 of the bill also replaces section 15 of the Ordinance, which prescribes the minimum professional qualifications of a Supreme
3/€
Page 90Page 91
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.