HONG KONG — Two British judges have resigned from Hong Kong’s top court, the city’s judiciary said on Thursday, deepening concerns about the city’s rule of law under a law imposed by Beijing. national security law.
The judiciary said in a statement that Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins, both non-permanent foreign judges at Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, submitted their resignations to the city’s leader. But he did not elaborate on his decisions.
Collins told The Associated Press that his resignation was due “to the political situation in Hong Kong.” But he said he continues to “have the utmost confidence in the court and the complete independence of its members.”
Sumption said he would make a statement next week.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a common law jurisdiction, unlike mainland China. After it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, non-permanent foreign judges have consistently served in the city’s high court.
The couple’s resignations are an indicator of confidence in the city’s rule of law and judicial independence, especially after the enactment of the 2020 national security law that virtually ended public dissent. Many pro-democracy activists have been arrested under the law, including some of the city’s best-known democracy advocates.
Last week, a Hong Kong court convicted 14 pro-democracy activists of conspiring to commit subversion in what was the city’s largest national security case to date. they were among 47 activists who were accused of attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and overthrow the city’s leader by obtaining the legislative majority needed to indiscriminately veto budgets.
Critics said the convictions showed how the city’s sweeping security law is being used against dissidents. But the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong insisted that the law helped return stability to the city after huge anti-government protests in 2019. Hong Kong officials have repeatedly insisted that the city’s judicial independence is being protected.
In March, the Hong Kong government enacted a new own security lawraising further concerns about the erosion of freedoms in the city.
The resignations of the two judges are not the first in the city. Months after the security law was enacted in June 2020, Australian judge James Spigelman told Australia’s national broadcaster that he resigned from the city’s high court for reasons “relating to the content of the national security legislation.” .
In 2021, British judge Baroness Brenda Hale also said she would resign from the city’s highest court when her first term ended.
In 2022, two other British judges, Robert Reed and Patrick Hodge, also resigned. At the time, Reed said he agreed with the British government that UK Supreme Court judges “cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration that has strayed from the values of freedom.” politics and freedom of expression.
In response, then-city leader Carrie Lam regretted the resignations of Reed and Hodge. But she refuted any accusation associating her resignations with the introduction of the security law or the exercise of freedom of expression and political freedom in Hong Kong.
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