Lady Hale quits Hong Kong court as China tightens grip

The former Supreme Court president says there are question marks about the new security law
The former Supreme Court president says there are question marks about the new security law
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE

Baroness Hale of Richmond, the first female president of the Supreme Court, will quit Hong Kong’s top court as concern grows about the role of UK judges in the territory.

She will be the first to leave the bench since Beijing imposed draconian security laws on the former British colony.

Members of the judiciary, who sit on Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal because of Britain’s historical links with the territory, were criticised for giving a veneer of respectability to the legal system there in the wake of the clampdown on human rights. The security law is seen as a wholesale breach of the 1997 handover agreement between London and Beijing.

Hale said: “The jury is out on how they will be able to operate