Mr Crowson
Mr Stuart OR
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APPEAL AND LEGAL AID FACILITIES IN HONG KONG
1.
Please see the attached cutting from the Hong Kong Standard of 18 May reporting a barrister's views on Tsoi's petition. Although the conclusions drawn by the barrister are incorrect, his comments are of interest and it might be worthwhile asking Hong Kong for their views on whether legal aid facilities are in fact adequate.
2.
The financial aspect of appeal cases is obviously fairly relevant at the moment. It was mentioned by John Tilney MP in connection with the Tsoi case and Hong Kong have recently sought our advice about reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses and disbursements for solicitors appearing in appeals to the Privy Council in Forma Pauperis (please see attached exchange between Hong Kong and Legal Executive Branch).
3. The article refers to a gap in the appeal system because Hong Kong does not have a proper Appeal Court. Although there is a Full Court, there are no Appeal Judges in Hong Kong. There have been several proposals from Hong Kong to establish Judges of Appeal. The last time was in 1972 when the Governor sought approval for a proposal that 2 of the existing Supreme Court Judges be renamed as Judges of Appeal. We advised that it might be better to introduce the new measure by administrative action and to leave the question of effecting changes in the legislation over for a period (say a year) so as to see how the arrangements worked out in practice. While the Chief Justice felt strongly that the need for Judges of Appeal had already been established, he agreed for the time being to achieve the results desired by administrative means. His main reason for doing so was to leave his successor (now the Chief Justice) a free hand, both as to timing and personalities. (Documents 6, 7 and 8 in HKK 14/50 attached.)
24 May 1973
P M Kelly (Miss)
(17293) Dd.897465 400m 1/73 G.W A Ltd. Gp 863
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