Why Are Australian, British Judges Leaving Hong Kong’s Top Court?
Udumbara
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Hong Kong’s leadership has been forced, in recent days, to explain the departure of multiple foreign judges from the city’s top court, the latest being former Australian Chief Justice Robert French.
The former British colony appoints both local and overseas judges to its highest court—a distinctive arrangement that sets it apart from the opaque legal system of mainland China.
This unique structure was established during the 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule.
Foreign judges—some of the most senior legal figures from Commonwealth countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia—have long been regarded as symbols of Hong Kong’s commitment to the rule of law, a principle vital to its reputation as a global financial hub.
What’s Been Happening in Hong Kong’s Top Court?
Former High Court Chief Justice French, 78, is the latest to resign from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal on April 11. French’s term was originally set to end in May 2026, following a three-year extension in 2023.
“Hong Kong, once a vibrant and politically diverse community, is slowly becoming a totalitarian state,” Justice Sumption wrote in a critical piece in the Financial Times. “The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly.”
What Did French Say?
Despite resigning, French expressed his respect for Hong Kong and the “integrity and independence” of the remaining foreign judges.“I reject the proposition that they are somehow complicit in the application of national security laws by the executive, or that they confer any spurious legitimacy upon them,” he said in response to media enquiries. However, he did observe that the “role of the non-permanent justices on the Court of Final Appeal has become increasingly anachronistic and arguably cosmetic,” but noted there was still a role for foreign judges to serve on the international commercial court in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s Official Response
In a statement, a Hong Kong government spokesperson “expressed regret” at French’s resignation.“The HKSAR government was grateful that Mr. Justice French, in his resignation letter to the Chief Executive, expressed great respect for the judicial officers of the HKSAR as well as for their independence and integrity, and that he felt honoured to have worked with them,” reads the statement.
While on June 16, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said the court maintained “a high level of reputation.”
Lam was critical of Western media’s coverage of Hong Kong, claiming they were not comprehensive, and sometimes inaccurate.
Some Say There’s Little Reason for Judges to Stay
There have long been appeals for Australian judges to withdraw from serving on Hong Kong’s top court, arguing that their continued presence lends legitimacy to the compromised legal system.“An argument in favour of overseas judges staying on the court is that they could curb the erosion of civil liberties,” wrote Hugh Piper, a former strategic policy adviser at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in the The Strategist.
What a Former Legislator Thinks
Former legislator Ted Hui, now living in exile in South Australia, said French’s official response was diplomatic.“He [French] wants to show respect to the system he served and not embarrass his Australian colleagues who are still on the bench,” Hui told The Epoch Times. “It’s not that he [French] didn’t speak out; it’s that he couldn’t.”
“But the reality is, he had been in the HK Court of Final Appeal long enough to know that politically sensitive NSL [National Security Law] cases would never be assigned to foreign judges like him. Even in the lower-profile protest cases he did sit on, the space to make a real impact—like issuing dissents, defending rights, or challenging abusive prosecutions—simply was not there,” Hui said.
“So when he says the role of foreign judges has become ‘anachronistic and arguably cosmetic,’ it’s a carefully chosen but damning truth: foreign judges are now just symbolic, used to maintain the illusion of judicial independence in a system increasingly serving Beijing’s political agenda.”
He has since pursued a legal career in Adelaide, and was later admitted to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2023.
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