Frank Stock, GBS (; born 15 June 1945) is a Non-Permanent Judge of the

Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA or CFA) is the final appellate court of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, upon the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, replacing the Judicial Committee of t ...

. He was until 2014 a Vice President of the

Hong Kong Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal of the High Court of Hong Kong is the second most senior court in the Hong Kong legal system. It deals with appeals on all civil and criminal cases from the Court of First Instance and the District Court. It is one of two ...

Early life and education

Born in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

(now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

), Stock received his education in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In 1967, he graduated from the

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

with a law degree.

Legal career

In 1968, Stock started his legal career 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 ...

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

where he was in private practice for 10 years. He moved to Hong Kong in 1978 where he served 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 ...

as a

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 ...

. Within a year, he was promoted to Senior Crown Counsel, and by 1984, he was Principal Crown Counsel. Stock was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 1984 and

took silk In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel ( post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister or ...

in 1985. From 1987 to 1991 he was the Solicitor General. In 1991, he left the civil service.

Judicial career

In 1991, Stock 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 ...

. In 1992, Stock was appointed as a full-time judge of the High Court of Justice of the Supreme Court (which became the Court of First Instance of the High Court on 1 July 1997). From 1993 to 1995, he was Chairman of the Insider Dealing Tribunal. He was Judge in charge of the Constitutional and Administrative Law List from 1999 to 2000. Stock was elevated to the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in October 2000. He was appointed as Vice President of the Court of Appeal on 7 July 2009. He was appointed a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in 2010. From 2010 to 2014, he primarily sat in the

and heard a few cases in the Court of Final Appeal. He retired from the

as a full-time judge in 2014, but remains a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal. In 2014, Stock 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 ...

by the

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Quotes

"Those of us who live in societies where the common law is entrenched, where there is in fact an independent judiciary, and where basic courtesies and freedoms appear to be extended between man and man, take these things perhaps for granted. There is a need for us as judges and as practitioners and as students, as governmental authorities and as a community at large from time to time not to make assumptions but to stand back, go back to square one and to examine fundamentals; to understand the Ciceronian truism that we must all be slaves to the law in order to be free."Interview with Hong Kong Lawyer magazine, October 2014
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stock, Frank Hong Kong judges Living people 1945 births Alumni of the University of Liverpool Zimbabwean emigrants to Hong Kong Recipients of the Gold Bauhinia Star British Hong Kong judges Justices of the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong) Solicitors General of Hong Kong