Following tradition, the year began with the Ceremonial Opening of the Legal Year on 8 January. The Hon Chief Justice Geoffrey MA spoke about the common law system being in place in Hong Kong for nearly 180 years as vital to the continuing success of Hong Kong. The use of case law, which is one of the features of the common law, relies fundamentally on the courts providing reasoned judgments for cases. In Hong Kong, the independent Judiciary exercises judicial power under the Basic Law to apply the law and determine legal disputes. The enforcement of law carries with it the power of imposing legal sanctions. With such responsibilities on the Judiciary, the Hong Kong’s common law system is underpinned by its transparency, enabling members of the public to observe court proceedings and gain access to court judgments. Its significance lies in helping the community scrutinize every judgment of the courts and see for themselves that the judgments of the courts are arrived at only by applying the law, without any outside, non-legal factors being taken into account. He also spoke about the importance of making comments about the work of the Judiciary on an informed basis as any unwarranted criticisms made against the rule of law cannot be of any benefit to the community.

The Chief Justice also stressed the total commitment of the Judiciary in Hong Kong to serve the community as best as it possibly can.

Various judicial appointments were made in the year 2018. Among these were the appointment of the Hon Mr Justice Andrew CHEUNG as a Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal; the appointment of the Hon Mr Justice Robert TANG as a Non-Permanent Hong Kong Judge of the Court of Final Appeal; the appointments of the Right Hon the Baroness HALE of Richmond and the Right Hon Beverley McLACHLIN as Non-Permanent Judges from other common law jurisdictions of the Court of Final Appeal; the appointment of the Hon Mr Justice Andrew MACRAE as a Vice-President of the Court of Appeal of the High Court; the appointment of the Hon Mr Justice Kevin ZERVOS as a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of the High Court; and the appointment of Mr Simon KWANG as Registrar of the High Court.

In 2018, the Judiciary continued to face heavy work pressures at all levels of court. While many performance targets were achieved, a number of targets at various levels of courts were not met. To address this challenge, the Judiciary has launched a new round of recruitment exercises for Judges and Judicial Officers (“JJOs”) at the High Court, District Court (“DC”) and Magistrates’ Courts starting from mid-2018 by phases, with a view to tackling the shortfall in judicial manpower which is one of the main factors affecting the court waiting times. Pending the substantive filling of judicial vacancies through open recruitment, the Judiciary continued to make use of temporary judicial resources to help maintain judicial manpower required at different levels of court. The Judiciary also continued to take forward the legislative amendment exercise for extending the statutory retirement ages for JJOs. This will strengthen the Judiciary by attracting more persons of the highest calibre to join the Bench as well as retaining experienced JJOs. During the year, the legislative amendments for increasing the civil jurisdictional limits of the DC and the Small Claims Tribunal (“SCT”) were passed and commenced operation, which enabled the DC to handle cases of higher claim amounts, thereby reducing the pressure particularly on the Court of First Instance and enhancing access to the judicial system for the public. The Judiciary will continue to closely monitor the waiting times for court cases.

The Judiciary has all along attached great importance to court security and has kept security measures under regular review to ensure the safety of JJOs, Judiciary staff, court users and the public. Subsequent to the introduction of security screening in the Family Court in November 2017, security screening has also been implemented in the High Court Building on court floors at LG/4F, and from 1/F to 14/F since January 2018. The Judiciary has also increased liaison with the Police to deploy additional police officers at the High Court, the DC and the Family Court. The Judiciary will continue to monitor the situation and introduce further measures to enhance the security of court premises where practical having regard to operational needs and user convenience.

In May 2018, the Judiciary merged the Mediation Information Office and the Family Mediation Co-ordinator’s Office to form the Integrated Mediation Office (“IMO”) to combine the functions of the previous mediation offices and facilitate settlement of disputes by way of mediation. Located at Wanchai Tower, the IMO provides a one-stop point for litigants to access a collection of reference materials on mediation. It accommodates a seminar room and interview rooms where mediation information sessions and pre-mediation consultations in appropriate cases are held, and videos on mediation are shown for educational purposes. The Building Management Mediation Co-ordinator’s Office located separately at the Lands Tribunal continues to provide information about building management mediation.

The Chief Justice appointed JJOs and invited representatives from the legal profession and relevant government departments to sit on a number of boards and committees to provide their input to issues that are important to the operation of the Judiciary. These boards and committees include the Civil Justice Reform Monitoring Committee, Working Party on Mediation, Admiralty Court Users’ Committee, Civil Court Users’ Committee, Criminal Court Users’ Committee, Family Proceedings Court Users’ Committee, Competition Tribunal Users’ Committee, Sub-Committee on Companies and Insolvency Matters of the Civil Court Users’ Committee and the Governing Body of the Hong Kong Judicial Institute.

In 2018, our JJOs continued exchanges with their counterparts in other jurisdictions. In May, the Hon Chief Justice Geoffrey MA delivered a speech in the 2018 Oration of the Supreme Court of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and gave lectures at the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales. In September, he led a delegation to visit various courts in Zhejiang Province and attended the second meeting of the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts in New York, the United States. The Hon Madam Justice AU-YEUNG and the Hon Madam Justice CHU, Judges of the Court of First Instance of the High Court, also attended the meeting of the Working Group on the draft Guide to Good Practice on Article 13(1)(b) of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention held in The Hague, Netherlands in September.

In 2018, the Judiciary arranged 339 visits for about 9600 visitors. Among all, most visitors are local students. We greatly value all opportunities to meet with visitors and introduce to them the work of the Judiciary.

You are cordially invited to visit our Photo Gallery for various memorable moments of the Judiciary in 2018.