Britain’s two most senior judges have quit Hong Kong’s top bench amid mounting concerns over the territory’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
In a move that will heighten pressure on the remaining six British judges who sit on the court, Lord Reed and Lord Hodge said that they had resigned over the draconian security law imposed on Hong Kong. Lord Reed of Allermuir said that Supreme Court judges risked appearing to endorse the regime in Hong Kong if they did not resign. He and Lord Hodge stepped down with immediate effect
Reed, president of the Supreme Court in Britain, said that since the introduction of the national security law in 2020 the position of serving British judges on the Hong Kong court “has become increasingly finely balanced”.
He added that “the judges of the Supreme Court cannot continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed”.
Reed said that he had informed the Hong Kong government of the decision that he and Hodge, the deputy president of the Supreme Court, had resigned from the territory’s court of final appeal “with immediate effect”.
Both Reed and Hodge have heard cases in Hong Kong within the last six months.
The resignations were backed in Whitehall. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said that she “wholeheartedly” supported the decision. Truss added that since the imposition of the national security law, there had been “a systematic erosion of liberty” and that the “authorities have cracked down on free speech, the free press and
She said that “the situation has reached a tipping point where it is no longer tenable for British judges to sit on Hong Kong’s leading court and would risk legitimising oppression”.Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy prime minister, said that the government’s “assessment of the situation in Hong Kong is that it has shifted too far from the freedoms that we hold dear — making free expression and honest critique of the state a criminal offence”. Raab added that the Hong Kong security law “flies in the face of the handover agreement we have had with China since 1997”.
He said: “I thank our judges for being a bastion of international rule of law in Hong Kong over the past 25 years.”