This Dec 2, 2021 photo shows the Court of Final Appeal Building in Hong Kong. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

Heavyweights in Hong Kong’s law sector said the resignations of two British judges from the Court of Final Appeal is a good example of foreign interference in the city’s affairs, and the departures will in fact give a boost to Hong Kong’s rule of law. 

Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan, executive councilor and practicing lawyer, and Maggie Chan Man-ki, founding president of the Small and Medium Law Firms Association of Hong Kong, both expressed regret over the resignations of Lord Robert Reed and Lord Patrick Hodge. 

Cheung said their decisions to resign were not in line with their previous deeds of upholding the rule of law and independence in exercising judicial powers, and were based on their biases against the special administrative region government. 

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The judges’ conflicting rhetoric has led the international community to doubt that they made their decisions because of intervention by the British government, he said. 

The resignations of the two judges, in Chan’s view, will not affect Hong Kong’s rule of law, which is jointly established by the nation’s Constitution and the city’s Basic Law. 

Their resignations, in fact, are evidence that the two foreign judges are no longer appropriate non-permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal, as they have been subjected to the political meddling of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Chan said. 

Hence, their resignations will be beneficial to safeguarding Hong Kong’s rule of law and its independent judiciary, which exercises judicial powers without any foreign political interference, she continued. 

Chan expressed strong opposition to any meddling of China’s internal affairs through smear campaigns against the promulgation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong. 

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China is no exception in its inherent right to safeguard national security, Chan said.