Will the British judiciary finally stand up to China?

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to respond to Communist China’s national security law. First, there is the Tony Chung way. Chung, a 19-year-old activist, set up a pro-independence movement and became the first person arrested under the repressive legislation, imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing’s dictators earlier this year. Then there is the Lord Hodge way. The deputy president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (SCOTUK) has been appointed to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (HKCFA) and as such may help to apply the national security law.

Lord Hodge is not the first British jurist to take up a non-permanent post on the special administrative region’s final appellate court; indeed, he joins SCOTUK president Lord Reed and former justices including Lords Sumption, Phillips, Neuberger and prorogation-slayer Baroness Hale. He is, however, the first to take the bench since the new law came into effect. Hong Kong democrats can rest assured that their prison sentences could be upheld by the finest common law judges in the world.