Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong)

Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong 香港終審法院
Established	1997
Country	Hong Kong, China
Location	1 Battery Path, Central, Hong Kong
Coordinates	22°16′45.75″N 114°9′34.71″E
Authorized by	Hong Kong Basic Law
Website	HK Judiciary
Chief Justice
Currently	Geoffrey Ma
Since	September 1, 2010

The Former French Mission Building in Central is currently used as the Court of Final Appeal.

Court of Final Appeal in Central

The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港終審法院) is the court with the final adjudication power on the laws of Hong Kong.

Before 1 July 1997, Hong Kong was a British Dependent Territory, and the power of final adjudication on the laws of Hong Kong was vested in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China on 1 July 1997, and the Court of Final Appeal was thereby established in Central, Hong Kong. Since then, it serves as the court of last resort, thus executing the power of final adjudication on the laws of Hong Kong.

Under the Basic Law, the constitutional document of Hong Kong, the special administrative region remains a common law jurisdiction. Judges from other common law jurisdictions (including England and Wales) can be recruited and serve in the judiciary according to Article 92 of the Basic Law.

The court has the power of final adjudication with respect to the law of Hong Kong as well as the power of final interpretation over local laws including the power to strike down local ordinances on the grounds of inconsistency with the Basic Law The power of final interpretation of national law including the Basic Law is vested in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China (NPCSC) by virtue of Article 158 of the Basic Law and by the Constitution of the PRC, however national laws which are not explicitly listed in Annex III of the Basic Law are not operative in Hong Kong.

Article 158 delegates such power to the courts of Hong Kong for interpretation while handling court cases. Although this arrangement has attracted criticism of "undermining judicial independence", an interpretation by the NPCSC does not affect any court judgments already rendered. Controversy regarding this power of interpretation arose in the right of abode issue in 1999.

Building

Since its inception, the court has been located in the Former French Mission Building, in Central. The Hong Kong Government is planning to relocate it to the present Legislative Council Building, which was originally designed to be a law court and was once the location of the colonial Supreme Court (1912-1985), in 2015 following renovations.

List of judges

Permanent judges

Title and name	Date of birth	Appointed by	Took office	Prior positions
Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal The Hon Mr Justice Geoffrey Ma	January 1956 Hong Kong	Donald Tsang	2010	Barrister since 1978, Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court (2000-2001), Judge of the Court of First Instance (2001-2002), Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal (2002-2003), Chief Judge of the High Court in Hong Kong (2003-2010)
The Hon Mr Justice Chan	1948 Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Judge of the District Court (1987-1991), Deputy Registrar of the High Court (1991-1992), Judge of the High Court (1992-1997), Chief Judge of the High Court (1997-2000)
The Hon Mr Justice Ribeiro	1949 Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Former legal academic and lawyer since 1979, Recorder of the High Court (1997-1999), Judge of the High Court (1999-2000), Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal (2000)
The Hon Mr Justice Tang	1947 Hong Kong	Leung Chun-ying	2012	Barrister since 1970, Deputy District Judge 1982-1986, Deputy High Court Judge 1986-1995, Recorder for the High Court of Justice/Court of First Instance 1995-2005, Vice President of the Court of Appeal (2006-2012), Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal (2005)

Politics and government of Hong Kong
Basic Law Chief Executive: Leung Chun-ying Government   Chief Secretary: Carrie Lam   Financial Secretary: John Tsang   Secretary for Justice: Rimsky Yuen   Executive Council     Convenor: Lam Woon-kwong   Bureaus, depts, etc.   Political Appointments   Accountability System   Hong Kong Civil Service Legislative Council   President: Jasper Tsang   Geographical constituency   Functional constituency   Elections   Political parties    Pan-democracy camp    Pro-Beijing camp Judiciary   Court of Final Appeal     Chief Justice: Geoffrey Ma   High Court Districts   District Councils Human rights Foreign relations Universal suffrage
Other Hong Kong topics
Culture - Economy Education - Geography - History Hong Kong Portal

Non-Permanent judges

Title and name	Date of birth	Appointed by	Took office	Prior positions
Mr Gerald Nazareth, GBS				Vice President of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong, Justice of the Court of Appeal of Bermuda
The Hon. Justice John B. Mortimer, GBS QC	7 August 1931 United Kingdom	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997
The Hon Henry Litton, GBM	1934 Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	Chairman of Hong Kong Bar Association; Vice President of the Hong Kong Court of Appeal 1995-1997; Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal 1997-2000
The Hon Sir Anthony Mason	21 April 1925 Australia	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	Former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
The Rt Hon the Lord Hoffmann	8 May 1934 South Africa	Tung Chee-Hwa		Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) of the UK House of Lords; former Lord Justice of Appeal
The Hon Sir Gerard Brennan	22 May 1928 Australia	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Former Chief Justice of Australia, High Court of Australia; Federal Court of Australia
The Rt Hon the Lord Millett	23 June 1932 United Kingdom	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Law Lord, House of Lords (UK)
The Rt Hon the Lord Woolf of Barnes	2 May 1933 United Kingdom	Tung Chee-Hwa	2003	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord); and former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Rt Hon the Lord Scott of Foscote	2 October 1934 South Africa	Tung Chee-Hwa	2003	Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord); former justice of High Court of Justice of England and Wales (Chancery Division), Lord Justice of Appeal, Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court
The Hon. Michael McHugh	1 November 1935 Australia	Donald Tsang	2005	Former justice of the High Court of Australia
The Rt Hon Sir Thomas Gault	31 October 1938 New Zealand	Donald Tsang
The Hon. Murray Gleeson, AC	30 August 1938 Australia	Donald Tsang	2008	Former chief justice of the High Court of Australia
The Rt Hon the Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe	17 March 1938 United Kingdom	Donald Tsang
The Hon Michael J. Hartmann	24 July 1944 British India	Donald Tsang	2010	Justice of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong, Justice of the Court of First Instance of Hong Kong, Judge of the District Court of Hong Kong
The Rt Hon the Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury	10 January 1948 United Kingdom	Donald Tsang
The Rt Hon the Lord Collins of Mapesbury	7 May 1941 United Kingdom	Donald Tsang	2011	Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord); Lord Justice of Appeal
The Rt Hon the Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony	13 May 1943 United Kingdom	Donald Tsang	2011	Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom; Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England; Lord Justice of Appeal
The Hon Mr Justice Bokhary	1947 Hong Kong	Leung Chun-ying	2012	Judge of the High Court (1989-1993), Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal (1993-1997), Permanent Judge of the Court of Appeal (1997-2012)
The Hon Mr Justice Spigelman, AC	1946 Poland	Leung Chun-ying	2013	Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (1998-2011)
The Hon Mr Justice Gummow, AC	1942 Australia	Leung Chun-ying	2013	Justice of the High Court of Australia (1995-2012)

See also

• Judiciary of Hong Kong
• Legal system of Hong Kong
• Supreme Court of Hong Kong
• Charles Ching

External links

• Hong Kong Judiciary website page on Court of Final Appeal
• Jurist Hong Kong