The chief justice of

Hong Kong 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 Delt ...

was, until 1997, the chief judge (, later 首席大法官) of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong and the most senior judge in the court system.

Supreme Court of Hong Kong

The Supreme Court of Hong Kong existed from 1844 (before the establishment of the court (1841-1844), legal proceedings would likely have been undertaken by the British military courts and commanding officers) when British civilian control of Hong Kong commenced until 1997 when Hong Kong was returned to China. Only the last chief justice,

Sir Ti-liang Yang Sir Ti-liang Yang, (; born 30 June 1929) is a retired senior Hong Kong judge. He was the Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1988–1996, the only ethnic Chinese person to hold this office during British colonial rule. He was a candidate in the ...

, was Chinese by ethnicity (British subject, later a

British Dependent Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former Bri ...

citizen); the remainder were all

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

, two of whom, Sir James Russell and Sir Joseph H. Kemp, both Irishmen, spoke Chinese.

Renaming of Supreme Court and title in 1997

In 1997 the Supreme Court of Hong Kong was renamed 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 th ...

. The position was accordingly changed to ''Chief Judge of the High Court'', while the role of head of the Hong Kong Judiciary was assumed by the chief justice of the Court of Final Appeal. The Court of Final Appeal was established to replace the role of the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

as Hong Kong's final appellate court.

List of pre-1997 chief justices

The following table lists former chief justices of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong prior to 1997. See the

for a list of chief judges of the High Court.

References

{{British dependencies chief justices, state = collapsed Supreme Court (Hong Kong) *

Supreme Court of Hong Kong

Renaming of Supreme Court and title in 1997

List of pre-1997 chief justices

See also

References