TNAG-2878-FCO40-4150-Hong-Kong-Court-of-Final-Appeal-1993 — Page 49

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moving him to the CFA. He believed this arrangement should be in line with requirements in both the BL and the JLG agreement.

Reiterating that the sooner the CFA was set up the better it would be, Mr Chan made a number of suggestions on other technical matters. They were: 1. a CFA judge should have practised law for at least 15 years or at least 10 years of judicial experience in the High Court; 2. CFA judges

3. the court should retire at 65 and be allowed to extend service to 70; should deal only with cases involving at least $1 million in compensation, or cases concerning important legal principles, or those that have an important bearing on the public.

Mr Chan said the CFA must be a standing body with its own permanent judges to handle matters such as applications for leave to appeal and other legal procedures before the hearings. He suggested that to start with, the CFA should conduct only four sessions a year, each covering three weeks. This should enable the court to handle some 20 cases each year, which would double the average annual number of appeal cases from HK dealt with by the Privy Council.

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Government Information Services 15 July 1993