Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said on Tuesday that the purpose of publishing relevant legal documents related to an injunction the government’s seeking to ban the 2019 protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”, is to invite those who disagree with the application to come forward and take part in the legal proceedings.
The bid to ban the song came after a series of blunders at international sports events where it was played for the Hong Kong team instead of the national anthem.
Speaking at a conference, Lam said that he welcomed those who disagree to present their arguments during the hearing on July 21, and that this gives people the chance to be heard.
He also defended the government’s bid, saying the injunction is over a specific song which had been misused as the national anthem and to promote independence for Hong Kong.
“Now as a matter of principle, this is wholly unacceptable and I think the government’s position should be and must be understandable, and secondly, when it comes to the injunction that we are seeking, we are seeking to restrain very specific types of activities which may well constitute criminal offences already,” he said.
“So those sorts of activities are not matters that ordinary people would be interested in doing, and not something that they had been doing.”
He said that law-abiding citizens should not be worried about the application.
He also addressed the recent case of “judicial copying”, which he described is an isolated incident, saying that he is confident it won’t be repeated by other judges.
Last week, a court judgement revealed that High Court judge Wilson Chan had copied verbatim more than 98 percent of the plaintiff’s arguments in a ruling.
Lam said Chief Justice Andrew Cheung had made it clear that such conduct is unacceptable. He also said that the case proved Hong Kong’s judicial system is reliable given that the Court of Appeal did not shy away from criticising fellow judges.
“At the end of the day, putting aside whether the conclusion was right or wrong, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial so the party of grief was actually given a chance to fight for justice,” he said.
“So looking at the system as a whole, I think it’s an indication that our judicial system is working well in accordance with well-established common-law tradition.”
He also said that the rule of law is a unique strength of Hong Kong.
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