Senior Hong Kong lawyers expressed alarm on Sunday at plans for the city's leader to select judges for national security cases, calling it the most serious challenge to the territory's vaunted judicial independence since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
HONG KONG - Senior Hong Kong lawyers expressed alarm on Sunday at plans for the city’s leader to select judges for national security cases, calling it the most serious challenge to the territory’s vaunted judicial independence since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.
As well as heading a new local national security council supervised by Beijing officials, the city’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, will also have the power to appoint judges to hear cases under the law. The law is stoking fears among foreign governments as well as Hong Kong’s democracy activists, who were already concerned that Beijing is eroding extensive autonomy promised when Britain handed it back under a “one country, two systems” formula.
A Reuters Special Report in April revealed that some of the city’s most senior judges privately feared the city’s rule of law was under assault from Beijing. The allocation and rostering of judges is currently handled by senior judges based on legal experience.
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