Andrew Fung echoes criticism by former top court judge over legal challenges to administrative decisions
STUART.LAU@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 7:46pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 7:53pm
Andrew Fung Wai-kwong criticised ‘abuse’ of the judicial review system in his newspaper column. Photo: Felix Wong
The top media aide to the chief executive has hit out at “abuses” of judicial reviews and asked any lawyers who challenge this claim to reveal their income from such cases.
Information coordinator Andrew Fung Wai-kwong, who made the remarks in his column in Headline Dailynewspaper on Monday, echoes retired top court judge Henry Litton who sparked the controversy a fortnight ago when he accused some Hongkongers for of misusing the system to challenge administrative decisions.
Fung’s article was published on the same day former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang dismissed suggestions that judicial reviews were a nuisance to the government in an opinion article for the Post.
Fung, the fourth highest-ranking official in the Chief Executive’s Office, wrote: “Some barristers criticise Litton on the one hand, and abuse judicial reviews and take up such cases on the other.
READ MORE: Legal system being misused, says former top Hong Kong judge
“They charge expensive legal fees and even the Legal Aid fees paid for by taxpayers. The society is concerned about conflicts of interests, so what about barristers? Can they tell us how much in legal costs they have received from judicial reviews?” Fung wrote.
The Chief Executive’s Office did not reply to inquiries whether Leung Chun-ying shared Fung’s views.
Litton, a former judge of the Court of Final Appeal, slammed what he described as the abuse of judicial reviews, singling out a former head of the University of Hong Kong student union, Yvonne Leung Lai-kwok. Litton described her failed application for a judicial review to challenge the government’s political reform package as “simply grandstanding”.
On Monday, former top judge Li emphasised that judicial reviews were fundamental to the rule of law and the courts had an effective mechanism to stop any attempt to abuse the process.
Winnie Tam Wan-chi, chairwoman of the Bar Association, said an applicant should not be seen as abusing the system if a judicial case failed after a full hearing in court.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1891607/system-abuse-cys-top-media-aide-slams-high-fees-charged
