IT IS AN unusual arrangement, to be sure. Since its establishment in 1997, the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong has had both local and foreign judges on its bench. The set-up was part of the deal that handed the territory from Britain to China that year. The foreigners, who hold non-permanent seats, tend to have impressive legal backgrounds and come from other common-law jurisdictions, such as Britain, Australia and Canada. So they are accustomed to exercising judicial power “independently and free from any interference”, as laid out in the territory’s mini-constitution, called the Basic Law.
The Economist
