Legco debates rule of law
(01-10 17:39)
Legislators are debating a motion on protecting the rule of law and judicial independence. The legal constituency's representative, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, opened the debate by saying that these two pillars of Hong Kong were facing unprecedented pressure.
Kwok said that retired Court of Final Appeal judge, Kemal Bokhary, recently warned that the rule of law faced "an impending storm of unprecedented ferocity." He said that storm had now arrived, RTHK reports.
Kwok moved the debate after it was revealed that the Secretary for Justice, Rimsky Yuen, had invited Hong Kong's highest court to seek an interpretation of the Basic Law from Beijing to help it decide a current abode case.
Yuen insisted that the government upheld the rule of law. But he told Legco that final adjudication of constitutional questions rests with the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and that in some cases the courts have a duty to seek an interpretation.
He said the decision on whether or not to do that was up to the court alone.
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