Lawmakers amend law to limit foreign lawyers in some cases

Hong Kong lawmakers this week passed an amendment to a law granting the city’s leader the power to bar overseas lawyers from handling national security cases, following a high-profile row sparked by a pro-democracy Hong Kong publisher’s hiring of a British lawyer.

The changes will require overseas lawyers who do not generally practice in Hong Kong to obtain permission from the chief executive before submitting applications to represent clients in national security cases in court.

The city’s leader will only give approval if there are sufficient grounds to believe the lawyers’ involvement will not contradict the interests of national security, and the decision cannot be challenged.

The bill was passed by a majority in the city’s legislature, filled by mostly Beijing loyalists, with little opposition through a show-of-hands vote. Critics said the changes will leave defendants with even fewer choices when they look for legal representation in some of the city’s most controversial cases.

The legal changes were proposed this year after the city’s top court approved jailed pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai’s appointment of London-based lawyer Timothy Owen to represent him as he faces collusion charges under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

Hours after Hong Kong’s top court in November approved Lai’s choice of lawyer, city leader John Lee asked Beijing to decide whether foreign lawyers should be allowed to work on national security cases. While China’s top legislative body didn’t directly rule on whether these lawyers could handle such cases, it said the city’s leader and committee for safeguarding national security had the power to decide the matter.

In proposing the amendment, the government said the changes would “effectively implement the spirit of the interpretation” of the law and address potential national security risks associated with overseas lawyers handling such cases. The mechanism will apply to both criminal and civil cases related to national security, it said.

On Wednesday, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam defended the changes by arguing defendants can choose representation from more than 1,600 barristers in Hong Kong. But, in practice, defendants in national security cases are left with a small pool of lawyers who can handle such cases, said Kevin Yam, senior fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law.

“Pretty much almost all the barristers who are willing and able” to take up such cases are already handling an ongoing trial involving 47 activists who were charged under a national security law over an unofficial primary election, Yam said.

He also noted the definition of national security is vague, so it will be hard to determine when foreign lawyers will be turned away under the new mechanism.

“If you are a foreign lawyer … would you take the risks in going through the whole uncertainty about whether the case you’re going to take is going to involve national security elements?” he said.

The legal changes passed are not retrospective. MDT/AP