TNAG-0499-FCO40-564-Administration-of-justice-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 102

Reference...

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK 14/6

29

26

Mr Stuart (HKIOD)

HONG KONG : ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Resisting

have we got

1. Ruckford's

letter of retter of 18 March

You will be interested to see the attached

from the Chief Justice in reply to mine of 8 March.

1.

On the title of District Judges, we are still awaiting comments from Protocol and Conference Department, to whom I sent the CJ's letter of 5 November under cover of a minute of 12 November, now with Mrs Drummond.

2.

3. The CJ is evidently satisfied with the staffing position over district judges and magistrates, so that shortage of judicial man- power is not a problem. This ties in with his letter last year about the magistracy and Mr Hobley's more recent letter about the state of business in the courts.

4. As regards grades of magistrate, the Chief Justice's remarks are relevant to the recent MP's letter endsing a memorandum from a Mr Lo.

5. I did not have the letter referred to in the last paragraph before me when I wrote, so must have been mistaken in attributing it to Mr Litton rather than Mr Zimmern. It is disappointing not to have seen it in print.

6. The points mentioned in my letter were of course rather peripheral ones and of course it did not touch on the main areas where there might be scope for improvement mentioned in your draft letter to the Governor, namely

(a) trial by jury, or possibly a judge sitting with lay

assessors;

(b) legal aid in criminal cases tried in district courts;

(c) recording of proceedings before district courts;

(d) alteration in the terms and conditions of Supreme Court

and District Court judges designed to facilitate appoint- ments of suitably qualified persons from the local bar or

the English bar with experience of civil cases.

Whatever changes are made under head (d), neither the local bar nor the English bar is likely to provide more than a very small field of good candidates. However I very much doubt if there is any widespread discontent in Hong Kong with the present corps of judges and magistrates and, if some progress can be made on the matters mentioned above, there should be little cause for anxiety of the operation of the present set-up.

A.R.R.

A R Rushford Deputy Legal Adviser

21 March 1974

CONFIDENTI AL