Court of Final Appeal

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The Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong S.A.R. of the People's Republic of China 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區終審法院
Jurisdiction	Hong Kong
Location	1 Battery Path, Central, Hong Kong
Coordinates	22°16′45.75″N 114°9′34.71″E / 22.279375°N 114.1596417°E / 22.279375; 114.1596417Coordinates: 22°16′45.75″N 114°9′34.71″E / 22.279375°N 114.1596417°E / 22.279375; 114.1596417
Authorized by	Hong Kong Basic Law
Website	http://www.judiciary.gov.hk/en/index/index.htm
Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal
Currently	The Hon Chief Justice Andrew LI Kwok-nang, GBM

Court of Final Appeal in Central

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

Before 1st 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 1st 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 continue to serve in the judiciary according to Article 92 of the Basic Law.

On the other hand, the power of interpretation of the Basic Law, being part of the national law of the PRC, is vested in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China (NPCSC) by virtue of Article 158 of the Basic Law. However, the same Article 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", it must be noted that nominally issuing an interpretation does not affect any court judgments already passed. The courts' power of interpretation is necessary for any judicial activities to be carried out. Controversy regarding this power of interpretation arose in the right of abode issue in 1999.

The court is 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 lawcourt and was once the location of the colonial Supreme Court.

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 Andrew Li Kwok-nang	December 1948  Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	Deputy (part time) Judge of the District Court of Hong Kong 1982, Justice of the Peace 1985, Deputy High Court Judge 1991, member of the Executive Council at-large 1992
The Hon Mr Justice Bokhary	1947  Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	Judge of the High Court, Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal 1993-1997
The Hon Mr Patrick Chan	Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Chief Judge of the High Court
The Hon Mr Justice Ribeiro	1949  Hong Kong	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Recorder of the High Court 1997, Judge of the High Court 1999, Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal

Politics and government of Hong Kong
Basic Law Government   Chief Executive - Donald Tsang   Chief Secretary - Henry Tang   Financial Secretary - John Tsang   Secretary for Justice -     Wong Yan Lung   Accountability System   Political appointees   Executive Council   Depts and related organisations Legislative Council Elections Political parties Judiciary   Court of Final Appeal District Council 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
Sir Derek Cons	15 July 1928  Brunei			President of the Court of Appeal of Brunei
Mr William James Silke
Mr Kutlu Tekin Fuad	Brunei			Judge, Court of Appeal of Brunei
Hon Mr Philip Gerard Clough
Sir Noel Plunkett Power, GBS	Australia	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong 1996-1997; magistrate, member of the Lands Tribunal, Justice of the High Court (Hong Kong)
Hon Mr Gerald Paul Nazareth, GBS				Justice of the Court of Appeal of Bermuda
The Hon Mr John Barry Mortimer, GBS QC	7 August 1931  United Kingdom	Tung Chee-Hwa	1997	Justice of High Court of Justice of England and Wales from 1985 to 1993, Lord Justice of Appeal from 1993 to 1997, and Vice President of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 1997 to 1999
The Hon Mr Henry Denis 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	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	1934  South Africa /  United Kingdom			Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (Law Lord) of the UK House of Lords; former Lord Justice of Appeal
The Hon Sir Gerard Brennan	1928  Australia	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	former Chief Justice of Australia, High Court of Australia; Federal Court of Australia
The Rt Hon Sir Thomas Eichelbaum GBE	1931  Germany /  New Zealand	Donald Tsang	2006	former Chief Justice of New Zealand
The Rt Hon the Lord Millett	1932  United Kingdom	Tung Chee-Hwa	2000	Law Lord, House of Lords (UK)
The Rt Hon the Lord Woolf of Barnes (Harry Kenneth Woolf)	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	1934  South Africa /  United Kingdom	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 Rt Hon Sir Ivor Richardson	24 May 1930  New Zealand	Tung Chee-Hwa	2003	former President of the New Zealand Court of Appeal, former Chancellor of, and Dean and Professor of Law, at Victoria University of Wellington; Distinguished Fellow at the Law School at Victoria University
Hon Michael McHugh QC	1935  Australia	Donald Tsang	2005	former justice of the High Court of Australia (until 2005)
Hon Murray Gleeson QC	30 August 1938 Australia		2008	former chief justice of the High Court of Australia

See also

• Judiciary of Hong Kong
• Legal system of Hong Kong
• Supreme Court of Hong Kong
• Court of Appeal, Hong Kong
• Court of Final Appeal, Macau
• Charles Ching

External links

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

v • d • e Court systems of the People's Republic of China "Constitutional court" = NPC Standing Committee Mainland Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China Local people's courts High courts Intermediate courts Basic courts Courts of special jurisdiction Military courts  · Railway transport courts  · Maritime courts  · Foresty courts  · Farming courts  · Petroleum courts Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal High Court District Court  · Magistrates' courts  · Tribunals Macau Court of Final Appeal Intermediate Court Courts of the First Instance = Primary Court + Administrative Court See also: Republic of China (controls Taiwan & partially Fujian)