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1/Today, the HK legislature passed legal amendments that empowers the executive govt to bar foreign lawyers from handling cases concerning national security in #HK. This is another example of damaging #HK's integrity of the legal system. See my thread: asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Hong…
2/ The legislation works against the tradition of allowing foreign lawyers without full qualification in Hong Kong to handle cases under the discretion of the court, now this discretion has shifted from the court, which would make decisions on the basis of merit, to the executive… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
3/ The vague definition of 'cases concerning national security' in the bill implies that the government can arbitrarily use the new powers to allow or prohibit foreign lawyers from taking up local cases, whatever civil or criminal, on the over-broad ground of 'national security.
4/ The amendments also disallow the court to review and challenge the decisions on admitting or barring foreign lawyers from taking cases by the chief executive. This is another instance of undermining judicial independence, and make executive government above the court.
5/ See my further comments here: reuters.com/world/asia-pac…
6/ And my article in the Diplomat on this matter: thediplomat.com/2023/03/hong-k…
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