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Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng today emphasised that Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma had stated he has not experienced interference from Mainland authorities.

Speaking to the media at the Legislative Council, Ms Cheng called on the public to read the Chief Justice’s statement in response to a media report about Hong Kong’s judicial independence.

Ms Cheng said: "The Chief Justice stated that since his taking office in 2010, he has not encountered nor experienced any interference from the Mainland authorities in any shape or form that affects judicial independence, including the appointment of judges.

"Nothing is better than the direct evidence of the Chief Justice himself telling us that there is not any such interference."

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng today refuted suggestions that the law prohibiting group gatherings to combat the COVID-19 epidemic was being misused to crack down on protests and people's freedoms.

During a media session, Ms Cheng responded to criticisms from some legislators that Police were abusing the measure to clamp down on protests.

She said: “The Government respects and protects the freedoms that are set out in our laws, Basic Law and the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance. However, these freedoms are not absolute. Insofar as they violate the laws, then of course appropriate actions will have to be taken.”

The Government had earlier introduced the Prevention & Control of Disease (Prohibition on Group Gathering) Regulation (Cap. 599G) to prohibit group gatherings with more than four people in public places with a view to combating COVID-19.

The regulation was made in accordance with the Prevention & Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap. 599).

“Cap. 599G is enforced under Cap. 599 as a matter of the public health emergency situation that is facing Hong Kong at the moment. It is promulgated to encourage social distancing. It is not with any other motive except for the safety and health of the people in Hong Kong.

“I hope that you will all comply with it in spirit and in form, so that you will not gather and thereby extend Hong Kong's position in this public health emergency situation. That is the only way by which we can get back to normal life as soon as possible.”

In response to a reporter's question on the relevant provisions in the Basic Law that pertain to the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ms Cheng remarked that the liaison office must also comply with Hong Kong laws.

“The Central People's Government as defined in the Constitution Law is actually the State Council, and therefore when one looks at the whole thing about the Constitution Law, Article 5 of the Constitution Law states unequivocally that every body that is set up will have to comply with the relevant laws and the Constitution Law.

“In other words, the liaison office will have to obey and comply with the laws in Hong Kong.”

In recent times, criminal damage has been repeatedly inflicted on our court buildings through graffiti. Some went as far as making derogatory remarks against specific judges which may amount to contempt of court. It is bewildering as to what such acts could achieve except a futile attempt to undermine the very core value that we cherish and respect.

Judicial independence is the key building block to our society. These rampant acts and statements, and for that matter, any views expressed in society or media, would not in any way usurp the decision-making process in court proceedings, nor will they affect our judicial independence as our judges will continue to decide cases based only on evidence and law, setting out how they have arrived at such decisions in their judgments, which are available to the general public. They have taken a judicial oath to administer justice without fear or favour and it is their duty to so do.

Judges in Hong Kong are appointed upon the recommendation by a statutory committee comprising nine members including the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal, the Secretary for Justice, two judges from the Judiciary, one barrister and one solicitor, as well as three eminent and respected members of the society not connected with the practice of law. Our judges would not be subjected to any political vetting. The only criteria upon which they are considered before appointment is the judicial and professional quality that contributes to our renowned judicial independence.

Judges enjoy security of tenure and immunity. Upon the appointment, district court judges and above are precluded from returning to practice in Hong Kong as a barrister or a solicitor. This “non-revolving door” system has worked well in preventing perceived potential conflicts of interest and enhances the independence of our judiciary.

Our judges manifest the highest professional and judicial quality as well as impartiality through the reasoned judgments that they deliver. Hong Kong cases are often cited in overseas jurisprudence evidencing the confidence and respect of the global legal community in Hong Kong’s judicial and legal systems.

The institutional framework described above, the guarantee of judicial independence explicitly set out in the Basic Law and the quality of our judgments contribute to the much respected judiciary and rule of law in Hong Kong. To top it all is that eminent and highly respected judges from apex court of other common law jurisdictions sit on our Court of Final Appeal as non-permanent judges. They sit on all types of cases, from commercial, criminal to constitutional and have witnessed Hong Kong’s system in administering justice.

One of our non-permanent judges of the Court of Final Appeal, the Right Honourable the Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury (former President of the Supreme Court of England and Wales who presided over the Brexit case), pointed out in a seminar in 2017 that his own direct experience as a non-permanent judge since 2010 proved that the Permanent Judges of the Court of Final Appeal are as institutionally independent and impartial. He also said that he has every reason to believe that this is equally true of the judges in the other courts of Hong Kong. He even said he would not be sitting in the Court of Final Appeal if he had any serious concerns about judicial independence or judicial impartiality in Hong Kong.

More recently, the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, PC, another non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal and also a retired chief justice of Canada, described in an interview that Hong Kong’s law is very rigorously applied, the judges are of high calibre, it is a very high level of judging, and the court is independent.

These remarks from eminent and respected judges from around the world speak volume about Hong Kong. One cannot help but be perplexed as to why some chose to try to undermine these core values baselessly and insidiously. It behoves each of us, in particular the legal sector including the two branches of the legal profession, to protect our judicial independence that underpins Hong Kong’s success and encourage others to join hands through our own sphere of influence. It is high time we bring back the Hong Kong we are familiar with.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng wrote this article and posted it on her blog on January 5.

The city's annual Jazz Marathon will be held on April 25.

The all-day music event will see artists from France, India, Italy, Japan, the Mainland, Russia and the US collaborate with local musicians to create a borderless jazz soundscape.

The Day Marathon Concert will be held from 2.30pm to 6pm while the Night Marathon Concert will be held from 7.15pm to 10.45pm.

 
Ahead of the concerts, jazz workshops with the artists will be held on April 24.

Presented by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department, the events will be held at Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai.

Tickets are available at URBTIX.

Click here for details.

We are now in the peak of job season. Depending upon your branch, applications may have been due as early as October 1. Big deadlines are November 1, November 15, and December 1.  Still, you should basically be done applying now—see … Continue reading →

We as mathematicians seem practically hell-bent on removing the phrase “I’m just not a math person” from students’ vocabularies. Maybe that’s why they scream it so loudly and defiantly? Math has so many tactical advantages over sports and the arts. … Continue reading →

The Les Arcs Co-Production village, running December 13-16 within the Les Arcs European Film Festival (Dec 13-20), will present 25 projects in development and a further 10 works-in-progress. Several of the projects chosen for this year’s event are Irish films and films with Irish producers’ backing.

The partnership will join hands with four UK startups as it hopes to reduce plastic waste as part of its retail tech initiative, JLAB

Companies with large numbers of furloughed workers are offering staff an introductory course in JavaScript coding, thanks to the European coding bootcamp, Codeworks.

There have been arrests, prosecutions and convictions of youngsters and students resulting from the social unrest since June last year. Recently, explosives and chemicals were found by Police. It would be catastrophic if they were used for unscrupulous purposes. Some of the youngsters might have been mistakenly led to believe that use of violence should be considered as a means to achieve their aspirations. However, I hope that they appreciate that law-breaking behaviour would always have legal consequences.

It is very troubling to see from the media reports that underage children or students are taking part in unlawful activities and even getting involved in violence. In so doing, they would not only put their own and others' safety at risk, but could also be arrested and prosecuted resulting in criminal records upon convictions. Their future in education and employment would inevitably be affected.

There are misleading suggestions that all young offenders would only be cautioned under the Police Superintendent's Discretion Scheme without criminal records. One must understand that Police, in deliberating whether to administer a caution, have to take into account a number of factors, such as whether the juvenile offender was under the age of 18 at the time of committing the offence; the seriousness and nature of the offence; whether the offender voluntarily and unequivocally admits the offence; whether the offender is remorseful and so on. Therefore, the scheme does not apply to all young offenders indiscriminately.

Similarly, bind over orders are only appropriate for first-time offenders involving minor offences and they have to be agreed by the courts. Under the bind over arrangement, offenders are required to admit the wrongdoings and are admonished in an open court. They also need to give an undertaking to the court to be of good behaviour. Imprisonment might be imposed for breaching the undertaking. Before agreeing to such a procedure on specified conditions, the prosecution has to give considerations to various factors including the age of the offender, criminal record, and attitude of the offender such as remorsefulness and so on.

There are also comments that prosecutions against young offenders should be withdrawn on the basis of public interest. I have to stress again that the Department of Justice (DoJ) must strictly make our prosecutorial decisions in accordance with admissible evidence, applicable laws and the Prosecution Code. The non-exhaustive list of considerations to be addressed when making assessment in considering public interest, including those applicable to juvenile offenders, were set out in 5.9 and 15.4 of the Prosecution Code, which include the nature of the offence, the seriousness of the offence, the criminal history of the suspect, remorsefulness of the suspect and the sentencing options available to the court and so on. Prosecutors should follow the above principles in making their decisions and must not withdraw charges unjustifiably under the pretext of public interest.

In considering the above arrangements, the DoJ has to carefully examine the circumstances of each case in an objective manner and strictly in accordance with the established principles. A decision cannot be made solely based on the age of the offenders. Their legal representatives are not only duty bound to inform them of their rights but also have an obligation to remind them of the legal consequences and the availability and considerations in relation to the above arrangements.

As observed by Lord Diplock, "[t]he acceptance of the rule of law as a constitutional principle requires that a citizen, before committing himself to any course of action, should be able to know in advance what are the legal consequences that will flow from it". Every member of the public must be aware that one has to bear the legal responsibility resulting from law-breaking behaviour. I sincerely hope that every one, in particular the youngsters, should exercise their independent thinking and judgement, and, more importantly, stay away from violence and not commit mistakes that might ruin their lives in the future.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng wrote this article and posted it on her blog on May 9.

(New Jersey Institute of Technology) A team of NJIT physicists has developed a novel test swab that can be 3D printed using inexpensive, widely available materials and speedily assembled in a range of fabrication settings. To augment the nation's testing capabilities, the inventors are making the swab's design publicly available, free of licensing fees, during the COVID-19 emergency.

(Queensland University of Technology) It started life as the concept drawing for a mobile 'status update' tool only geeks could love. Now we cannot imagine a world without Twitter, its hashtags, and the worldwide movements it has helped create. A new book tracks its journey.

(St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) Funding will help expand collaboration across engineering and physical sciences to expand tools for studying pediatric diseases.

(U.S. Army Research Laboratory) A US Army-funded project is identifying how officials at different levels of government can work together to encourage protective behaviors to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

(Aarhus University) An international team of researchers has put together a new image of Neanderthals based on the genes Neanderthals left in the DNA of modern humans when they had children with them about 50,000 years ago. The researchers found the new information by trawling the genomes of more than 27,000 Icelanders. Among other things, they discovered that Neanderthal children had older mothers and younger fathers than the Homo-Sapien children in Africa did at the time.

(University of Maryland) Many historians have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. New historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic, named for Emperor Justinian I.

(University of Bonn) The extent to which Brazilian soy production and trade contribute to climate change depends largely on the location where soybeans are grown. This is shown by a recent study conducted by the University of Bonn together with partners from Spain, Belgium and Sweden. In some municipalities, CO2 emissions resulting from the export of soybean and derivatives are more than 200 times higher than in others.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack faced backlash for her comment, with some people calling it "elitist" to separate meatpackers from "regular folks."

You can now add Fresno to the growing list of cities that are now requiring people to wear face masks in public places.

It may not be a pardon. But the Justice Department has dropped charges against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.Retired Army Lt. Gen. Flynn, an important figure in the war on terror who gave Trump’s 2016 run military validation, will avoid prison time after the Justice Department provided a deliverance on Thursday that Flynn had long sought. It is also the second redemption that Trump has provided the general, who served as his first national security adviser for less than a month. “The Government has determined, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution and based on an extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that continued prosecution of this case would not serve the interests of justice,” wrote Timothy Shea, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former senior aide to Attorney General William Barr. Shortly before the filing, lead prosecutor Brandon Von Grack abruptly withdrew from the case.The Justice Department filing, in essence, portrays Flynn as the victim of an FBI frame-up job, and his lies to the FBI as legally marginal. Shea wrote that Flynn’s lies needed to have been “not simply false, but ‘materially’ false with respect to a matter under investigation.” Later in the filing, Shea referred to those lies as “gaps in [Flynn’s] memory,” rather than deliberate falsehoods Flynn conceded. “Even if he told the truth, Mr. Flynn’s statements could not have conceivably ‘influenced’ an investigation that had neither a legitimate counterintelligence nor criminal purpose,” Shea wrote.It was an astonishing turnaround since 2018, when a federal judge said to Flynn in a sentencing hearing, “arguably, you sold your country out.” That judge, Emmet Sullivan, could still decide to reject Shea’s filing and continue with Flynn’ sentencing. Michael Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department inspector general, tweeted that the extraordinary move represented “a pardon by another name” and called it a “black day in DOJ history.”Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said the decision to drop charges was “outrageous” and revealed “a politicized and thoroughly corrupt Department of Justice.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) added, “If Barr’s Justice Department will drop charges against someone who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and who the White House publicly fired for lying to the vice president, there’s nothing it won’t do, no investigation it won’t taint.”Neither Flynn nor his attorney, Sidney Powell, responded immediately to requests for comment.Speaking to reports on Thursday afternoon, Trump said he had no prior knowledge of the Justice Department’s decision. “He was an innocent man,” Trump said, of Flynn. “Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior.”The dropped charges follow a years-long groundswell from Trump’s base, and particularly Fox News, to clear Flynn. His advocates claim that Flynn was set up by the same disreputable FBI figures who they believe persecuted Trump over phantom collusion with Russia.Flynn’s guilty plea, in December, 2017, has been no obstacle to the narrative, particularly since Flynn sought afterwards, unsuccessfully, to withdraw his plea. His sentencing, initially set for February, had also been delayed.Last month, agitation for a Flynn pardon intensified after documents emerged from two of Trump’s most hated ex-FBI figures, counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page, discussing Flynn’s fateful January 2017 interview with the FBI. Page asked when and how to “slip it in” to Flynn that lying to an FBI agent is a crime, something that Flynn’s advocates believed showed the general being railroaded from the start. But veteran FBI agents and prosecutors have pointed out that the FBI is not legally obligated to inform an interview subject that lying to them is illegal. “Michael Flynn was very familiar with the FBI,” said Stephanie Douglas, a former executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch. “He would certainly have been aware of his obligation to provide candid and truthful information. His claim he was tricked and manipulated doesn’t sound valid to me.” Shea, in his Thursday court filing, suggested the FBI officials were “fishing for falsehoods merely to manufacture jurisdiction over any statement.” In Shea’s view, Flynn’s lies were less germane to the prosecution than the FBI “lack[ing] sufficient basis to sustain its initial counterintelligence investigation,” and its pre-interview position that it ought to close the investigation before speaking with the then national security adviser.Former FBI deputy head Andrew McCabe said on Thursday that the suggestion there was no reason to interview Flynn was “patently false, and ignores the considerable national security risk his contacts raised.” He said Flynn’s lies added to the FBI’s concerns about his relationship with Russia. “Today’s move... is pure politics designed to please the president,” he added.U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, who was appointed by Barr to review Flynn’s and other high-profile cases, said on Thursday that he concluded “the proper and just course” was to dismiss the case. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed,” he said.The FBI Didn’t Frame Michael Flynn. That’s Just Trump’s Excuse for a Prospective Pardon.While serving as national security adviser, Flynn misled FBI interviewers about conversations he had with the then-Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. In one of those late 2016 conversations, according to court filings, Flynn asked the Russians to avoid escalatory actions in response to sanctions and diplomatic expulsions then President Barack Obama enacted as reprisal for Russian electoral interference. Shea, in his filing, called Flynn’s Kislyak calls “entirely appropriate on their face.”The national security adviser’s lies prompted the holdover attorney general, Sally Yates, to warn the White House that Flynn had given the Russians leverage to blackmail him. But it would take weeks before Trump fired Flynn over “an eroding level of trust” concerning misleading Vice President Mike Pence on the Kislyak contacts. By May, Trump was said to have regretted dismissing the general.  Flynn in 2017 agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The general avoided charges for taking $530,000 in unregistered money from interests connected to the Turkish government—something he only declared with the Justice Department after his downfall as national security adviser. During a sentencing hearing in 2018, a federal judge castigated Flynn for disgracing the uniform Flynn wore for three decades. “Arguably, you sold your country out,” Judge Emmet Sullivan said. Two years earlier, on stage at the Republican national convention, Flynn had led a chant of “lock her up” about Hillary Clinton. Protesters outside Flynn’s courtroom did not let the general forget it. Trump’s enduring bond with Flynn is a testament to the importance of the role the general played in 2016.A host of national security officials, many aligned with the Republican Party, rejected Trump in 2016 as unfit to be president owing to his nativism, his penchant for brutality and his benign view of dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Flynn was the exception. And the general was an exceptional figure. As the intelligence chief for the Joint Special Operations Command during the mid-2000s, Flynn is one of a select few people who can be said to have personally prosecuted the most sensitive missions of the war on terror. Michael Flynn Putting Mueller Deal at Risk in ‘Dangerous’ New TrialIt was a pivotal credential in another way. Flynn emerged from the war on terror endorsing Trump’s view that the security apparatus, abetted by hidebound liberals and cowardly conservatives, had neutered the war on terror by refusing to see it was a civilizational conflict with Islam. “Islam is a political ideology” that “hides behind this notion of being a religion,” Flynn told the Islamophobic group ACT for America shortly after the 2016 convention. His hostility to Islam informed his sanguine view of Russia, which both Flynn and Trump saw as naturally aligned with the U.S. against what they called “Radical Islamic Terror.”It also meant that Trump and Flynn shared a common bureaucratic enemy. James Clapper, then the director of national intelligence, was a lead architect of an intelligence assessment finding Russia intervened in the election on Trump’s behalf. In 2014, Clapper fired Flynn as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was deeply embittering. Just four years earlier, Flynn had been hailed as an innovator after claiming U.S. military intelligence had misunderstood the Afghanistan war. While Flynn portrayed himself as a martyr, victimized by the ‘Deep State’ for daring to warn about radical Islam, Clapper and other intelligence leaders had fallen out with Flynn over what they considered an incompetent management style and an iffy relationship with the truth. Reportedly, Flynn believed Iran was involved in the 2012 assault on a CIA compound in Benghazi that killed four Americans, and claimed incorrectly that Iran was responsible for more American deaths than al-Qaeda. Aides referred to such untruths as “Flynn facts.” Flynn facts did not disturb Trump. They validated his instincts on national security. Trump rewarded Flynn by making him national security adviser, one of the most important positions in the U.S. security apparatus. It was the first time Trump redeemed Flynn. Thursday’s dropped charges represent the second. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

A coronavirus test – which aims to deliver rapid results – has received major funding.

Imperial's disease outbreak centre J-IDEA has launched a pandemic hospital planning tool to help cope with extreme surges in demand from coronavirus.

Alumni inspired by the scientific response to the SARS outbreak are developing a platform to help researchers collaborate on global challenges.

What impact has the lockdown had on our mental health, and what determines how people cope with isolation?

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the AGS Health in Aging Foundation today announced that two expert researchers--Kavita Dharmarajan, MD, MSc, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in N.Y.; and Nazema Siddiqui, MD, MHSc, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.--will receive the 2020 Jeffrey H. Silverstein Memorial Award.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) today announced that John B. Murphy, MD, a clinician, educator, and administrator working to embed geriatrics education in the fabric of medical curricula and clinical operations will be honored with the 2020 Dennis W. Jahnigen Award celebrating work to train health professionals in the care we all need as we age.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) today named James Lin, DO, MS, MHSA, president of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) Institute for Successful Aging in Erie, Pa., its 2020 Clinician of the Year. Lin will be honored at the AGS 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting (#AGS21), May 13-15, 2021, in Chicago, Ill., following the cancellation of the AGS 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting due to COVID-19.

(Kessler Foundation) Andrew Houtenville, Ph.D., research director of the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability: 'Unlike the Great Recession and the Great Depression, many workers in the COVID Recession may be 'on temporary layoff' (aka furloughed) and may be recalled, rather than losing their jobs completely. To further investigate this issue, we plan to release a Special nTIDE Report on May 15.'

(Oregon State University) Clinical trial data behind drug dose recommendations for elevated cholesterol and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease illustrate how larger doses may not be worth the extra costs for many types of patients.

(University of Exeter) The public would comply with major changes to medical advice - but would then be less likely to follow other new guidelines in the future, research shows.