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02 August 2024 / Dr Ping-fat Sze
Issue: 8082 / Categories: Features , Profession , International , International justice
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The rule of law, Hong Kong & reality

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It’s time to refocus attention on the administration of criminal justice in this former British colony. Dr Ping-fat Sze explains why
  • Comments on shortcomings in the prosecutorial system in Hong Kong, including the Department of Justice’s lack of oversight of prosecutions by police and public authorities.

The resignation of three visiting judges from the final appeal court of Hong Kong, shortly after the organisers of the 2020 pro-democracy primaries were convicted by the first instance court on 30 May 2024, have sent shock waves through the common law world.

One of the quitting judges, Lord Sumption, raised his concerns in the Financial Times (‘The rule of law in Hong Kong is in grave danger’, 10 June 2024) only to be met with condemnation in the strongest possible terms by the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, and in turn, by the chief executive, the chief justice, the chief secretary, the justice secretary, the deputy justice secretary and the security chief of Hong Kong in the following

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Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
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