Sonia Chan says it’s normal to exclude non-national judges

The Secretary for Administration and Justice said that “it is an established international practice” to exclude foreign judges from handling matters of national security.

Earlier this week, the Legislative Assembly (AL) approved the Basic Law of Judicial Organization which includes a controversial article on this issue.

Several lawmakers, including Sulu Sou and Au Kam San, are still asking the Secretary questions about the article, although the matter was already concluded at the AL.

In his question to Sonia Chan, Sou pointed out that “it is a historical fact that Macau has non-Chinese judges and that the law allows [Macau] to hire non-Chinese judges.”

Sou further noted that Macau’s law states that the city should hire judges by evaluating their professional qualifications, meaning that non-Chinese judges can be hired if their professional qualifications meet the requirements.

In Sou’s opinion, Macau should face the fact that the city has non-Chinese judges, and has suggested that the SAR could establish specific courts for certain cases.

However, Chief Executive-appointed lawmaker Pang Chuan took the opposite view stating that the aforementioned article needed to be fully supported. Building on this Secretary Chan said that “Macau – as part of China – has to safeguard the interests of the State.”

The Secretary even asked Sou to provide her with an example of any country in the world that allows foreign judges to enter their judicial system.

“If the courts did not believe in foreign judges, why would we hire them?” said Chan.

According to Chan, it would not be advantageous to establish a specific court for national security matters as the court may require several judges, which would put pressure on the judiciary system’s human resources.

“[If] only allowing Chinese judges [to rule on national security matters] violates the principle of natural justice, then some courts are currently violating the principle,” said Chan.

The Secretary explained that the principle of natural justice suggests that a specific judge should not be assigned to rule on a certain case.

She also explained that judges are randomly assigned to different cases. 

“The appointment of judges happens before the case, which [satisfies] the principle of natural justice.” JZ