Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing lawmakers are involved in the judicial appointment

Pro-Beijing lawmakers have successfully intervened for the first time in a top court hearing in Hong Kong, in which lawyers said it was the latest attack on the city’s esteemed independent legal system.

Judge Maria Yuen, the wife of Geoffrey Ma, the city’s former chief justice, was to be named the next permanent judge of the Hong Kong Final Court of Appeal, two people told the Financial Times familiar with the facts.

But he withdrew his candidacy for the city’s top court after lawmakers raised concerns about the appointment, according to people. Lawmakers argued that Yuen could be influenced by her husband, who criticized pro-Beijing elements after defending the neutrality of Hong Kong’s judiciary, according to a person with knowledge of her thinking.

The movement occurred Beijing has been repressed on Hong Kong’s civil and political institutions in response to the 2019 anti-government protests, arresting pro-democracy activists, politicians and media personalities.

China has not yet made significant changes to Hong Kong’s common law legal system. But any such move would concern international companies, many of whom have established regional headquarters in the city in part because of their independent judiciary.

Yuen’s appointment was recommended last year by the Judicial Officers’ Recommendation Commission, a semi-independent body that considers judicial positions in Hong Kong, and was expected to be approved by Carrie Lam, the chief executive of the judiciary. city, according to the two people familiar with the facts.

Hong Kong’s de facto Parliament, the Legislative Council, is required to confirm the chief executive’s candidates for senior judicial positions. In the past, this step has been seen as a formality.

But before finalizing Yuen’s recommendation and formally sending it to the legislature for confirmation, pro-Beijing lawmakers, including Holden Chow and Elizabeth Quat, raised concerns.

The legislature’s justice administration and legal services panel, which is dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers, called on the judiciary and government officials to debate the appointment.

Aside from his objection that Ma could continue to influence the court through Yuen, lawmakers also said it took him a long time to issue sentences, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking.

The politician’s investigations led Yuen to withdraw his appointment, according to two people who knew the facts, the first known case of its kind. Yuen addressed all requests for comments on the incident to the judiciary, which he refused to delve into.

Subsequently, the committee selected another judge, Johnson Lam, to be appointed.

The inmates said Lam was not seen in his judgments as more conservative or liberal than Yuen, nor was there any evidence that lawmakers had acted on Beijing’s orders in Yuen’s case.

But major legal figures were concerned that the Yuen case might set a precedent for the Legislative Council, dominated by pro-Beijing politicians, to formally review judicial appointments. In turn, this could undermine the authority of the JORC, the judicial committee of appointment.

A senior legal figure said the political review of appointments could lead to the choice of judges based on their loyalty to Beijing rather than their capabilities, and could deter the best candidates to come forward.

Johannes Chan, a law scholar at the University of Hong Kong, said the Yuen affair was a “very bad and worrying development for judicial independence.”

“It provides a channel for political interference in the appointment of key judicial staff by a [legislature] which is dominated by pro-Beijing politicians, ”Chan said.

Critics said the government’s decision last year appoint separate judges as cases related to the national security law, introduced into the territory by Beijing last year in the wake of the protests, had already damaged perceptions of judicial independence.

The trial of Tong Ying-kit, the first person accused under the security law, it will begin Wednesday before these judges.

Lawmakers Chow and Quat declined to comment on the Yuen case. Carrie Lam declined to comment, but said, “all appointments of judicial officers by the chief executive are made in accordance with the basic law,” the mini-constitution of the territory.

Geoffrey Ma declined to comment.

The chairman of the legislature’s administration of justice and legal services group, Horace Cheung, said he had contacted the government and the judiciary to “obtain preliminary opinions… On issues raised by members.” its court on the nomination process.