The deputy president of the UK Supreme Court has been appointed to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam said Monday.
An Australian judge recently resigned over the new national security law.
The number of overseas judges on the court declined from 14 to 13 after Australia's Justice James Spigelman gave up his seat in September. He said he had concerns about the China law that activists fear will constrain freedom of speech and movement in the city.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday that Lord Hodge, or Patrick Hodge, was not a replacement for Justice Spigelman, whose exit from the Hong Kong judiciary was shrouded in controversy.
"Appointing Court of Final Appeal judges [is] a process and that process is unlikely to take place within such short period of time," Lam said at a news conference in reference to the month between Spigelman's resignation and Hodge's appointment. "There's no linkage between the two cases."
The Australian justice never spoke publicly about his decision other than telling ABC news that the resignation was "related to the content of the national security legislation."
At any one time, the former British colony turned Chinese Special Administrative Region may have dozens of non-local judges from other countries.
"The presence of these esteemed non-permanent judges manifests the judicial independence of Hong Kong, helps maintain a high degree of confidence in our legal system and allows Hong Kong to maintain strong links with other common law jurisdictions," Lam said.
The Scotland-born judge must still wait for the endorsement of the city's Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission, an independent body that evaluates potential justices.
If successful, Lord Hodge will serve on the Hong Kong court in a part-time capacity while continuing appointments in his home jurisdiction. As a judge on Britain's Supreme Court, he was the deciding vote against Chinese phone maker Huawei in a landmark August patent case.
