Practice in Hong Kong

In her wonderful book Hong Kong, Jan Morris wrote about finding there “judges of a truly awful Englishness, the very embodiment of the common law...fluent in the circumlocutions of their trade”. By 1997, when Hong Kong became the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, those judges (well, most of them) had gone. But practice in the Hong Kong courts retains its colonial flavour: wigs and gowns, bowing to the judge, and “may it please your Lordship” remain customary.

• Article from Public Law Focus Nov 07