Jane Cheung

Retired Australian justice Patrick Anthony Keane has been appointed a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong.

This makes him the first overseas judge appointed after two senior British judges' resigned last year to protest against the introduction of the national security law.

The judiciary announced that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu had appointed the 70-year-old Keane as a non-permanent judge from another common law jurisdiction to the SAR's top court for a three-year term commencing on Thursday.

The decision was made on the recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission and with the endorsement of the Legislative Council.

So Keane, a former chief justice of the Federal Court of Australia and a former justice of the Australian High Court, becomes the first overseas judge taking a job at the SAR's Court of Appeal in more than two years.

In December 2020, six months after Beijing enacted the national security law on the previous June 30, then chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor appointed UK Supreme Court's deputy president Patrick Hodge as an overseas non-permanent judge at the Court of Final Appeal.

But in March last year Hodge and fellow UK non-permanent judge Robert Reed, who is the president of the UK Supreme Court, tendered their resignations with immediate effect, citing as the reason that the SAR administration had "departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression."

Their resignations marked the end of a post-handover practice for incumbent British judges to sit in the Hong Kong's top court.

There are currently 10 overseas non-permanent judges in the Court of Final Appeal, including six from the United Kingdom, three from Australia and one from Canada.

Keane's appointment was approved in a legislative meeting on March 15.

Holden Chow Ho-ding, a member of the subcommittee on Proposed Senior Judicial Appointment, said the recommendation was passed unanimously.

Patrick Anthony Keane

First overseas judge named to CFA since national security law enacted