Arthur Leong GBS (1936–2010) was a judge in Hong Kong. He was

Chief Judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...

of the

High Court of Hong Kong The High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a part of the legal system of Hong Kong. It consists of the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance; it deals with criminal and civil cases which have risen beyond the l ...

from 2000 to 2003.

Early life

Leong completed his secondary education at

Wah Yan College, Kowloon Wah Yan College, Kowloon (WYK; ; demonym: ''Wahyanite'', pl.: ''Wahyanites'') is a Catholic secondary school for boys run by the Chinese Province of the Society of Jesus. It is located in Kowloon, Hong Kong and is a grant-in-aid secondary sch ...

. He joined the Hong Kong Government in 1954 and for 9 years between 1954 and 1963, he worked successively in the then

Prisons Department A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, the Royal Observatory and the Labour Department. In 1963, he resigned from the government to qualify as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

in England. He was called to the bar of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1965.

Legal career

Leong started his legal career in the

Legal Department The Legal Department, headed by the Attorney General, was the department responsible for the laws of Hong Kong until 1997, when Hong Kong ceased to be a British crown colony. The department was responsible for dealing with criminal cases an ...

and was soon promoted to

Crown Counsel Crown counsel are lawyers, generally in Common Law jurisdictions, who provide advice to the government and acts as prosecutors in cases. In various jurisdictions their title can vary and they could also be known as the Queen's Advocate, King's Advo ...

. During that time he was engaged for some time as a law draftsman. In 1973 he was appointed a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

. He also sat for a time as Presiding Officer at the Labour Tribunal. In 1982, he was promoted as a judge of the District Court of Hong Kong. He became a judge of the

Supreme Court of Hong Kong The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was the highest court in Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and heard cases of first instance and appeals from the Di ...

in 1991 and was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 1997. The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was renamed the High Court of Hong Kong when Hong Kong was returned to China on 1 July 1997. Leong was due to retire in 2000, but was appointed

Chief Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong The Chief Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong (CJHC) is the head of the High Court of Hong Kong and the President of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong. In the Hong Kong order of precedence, the Chief Judge is the second most senior administr ...

in that year and had his term of office extended for 2 and a half years. He retired from the judiciary in July 2003. In a retirement speech, the Chief Justice Andrew Li said of Leong: "As a Judge, Mr Justice Leong was versatile. His important contribution covered a wide field, including both civil and criminal cases, and embraces both trial work at all levels and in recent years, appellate work. He has made a particularly significant contribution to the development of the bilingual capacity of our courts. In relation to the use of Chinese, his work has been of pivotal importance."

Post-retiremement

Leong remained active in retirement. In 2003 he was appointed chairman of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He later served as Chief Adjudicator of the Immigration Tribunal and as Chairman of the Post-Release Supervision Board. In 2006, he sat as a

Deputy High Court Judge The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...

Awards

In 2003, Justice Leong was awarded the

Gold Bauhinia Star The Gold Bauhinia Star (, GBS) is the highest Bauhinia Star rank in the honours system of Hong Kong, created in 1997 to replace the British honours system of the Order of the British Empire after the transfer of sovereignty to People's Republic of ...

, one of the highest honours given by the

HKSAR Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Government.

Death

Leong died in August 2010.RTHK report: "Former High Court Judge Dies" 13 August 2010
/ref>

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leong, Arthur Hong Kong judges Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star 1936 births 2010 deaths British Hong Kong judges