Secretary for Justice (Hong Kong)

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Secretary for Justice 律政司司長
Emblem of Hong Kong
Incumbent The Hon Rimsky Yuen, SC since 1 July 2012
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Government Secretariat Executive Council
Reports to	Legislative Council
Residence	19 Severn Road, The Peak
Appointer	Central People's Government nomination by Chief Executive
Term length	No longer than the Chief Executive's remaining term
Inaugural holder	Elsie Leung
Formation	1 July 1997
Website	DOJ

The Secretary for Justice (Chinese: 律政司司長) is the head of the Hong Kong Department of Justice, the chief legal advisor to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, and the chief law enforcement officer of the Government of Hong Kong. Before the end of British rule in 1997, the position was known as the Attorney-General of Hong Kong.

The Secretary for Justice, after the Chief Secretary and the Financial Secretary, is one of the three highest Principal Officials of the Government. The Secretary for Justice belongs to the Policy Committee, chaired by the Chief Secretary, and is normally a member of the Executive Council.

The Secretary for Justice is nominated by the Chief Executive and takes office after appointment by the Government of the People's Republic of China, which is responsible for Hong Kong's foreign affairs and defence. The office of the Secretary for Justice was established by the Hong Kong Basic Law,^[1] which guarantees the power of the Department of Justice to control criminal prosecutions free from any interference.^[2]

The current Secretary for Justice is Rimsky Yuen, SC.

Role

In the course of discharging his or her duties as the chief legal advisor to the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, the Secretary for Justice is assisted by 5 law officers, namely:

• the Solicitor General who heads the Legal Policy Division,
• the Director of Public Prosecutions who head the Prosecutions Division,
• the Law Officer (Civil Law) who heads the Civil Law Division,
• the Law Officer (International Law) who heads the International Law Division, and
• the Law Draftsman who heads the Law Drafting Division

Ranking in the Hong Kong Government

The Secretary for Justice is the third in line, after the Chief Secretary and the Financial Secretary, to act for the Chief Executive when he or she is on leave, outside Hong Kong, or when the position is otherwise temporarily vacant.

The Secretary for Justice ranks fifth in the Hong Kong order of precedence.

Residence

The Secretary of Justice has an official residence at 19 Severn Road, The Peak.

Pre-1997 position

Before the 1997 handover to China, the position was known as the Attorney General (Chinese: 律政司), and the department was known as the Legal Department (Chinese: 律政署) and was also known as the Attorney General's Chambers (Chinese: 律政司署). The office of the Attorney General was never localized during British rule and no Hong Kong Chinese ever held this key post.

List of Secretaries/Attorneys General

Attorneys General before 1997

No.	Portrait	Name	Term of office	Notes
1		Paul Ivy Sterling	1844-1855	First Attorney General (AG) of Hong Kong. Later appointed Puisne Judge in Ceylon 1855 and acting Chief Justice 1860.
2		Thomas Chisholm Anstey	1855-1859	Former member of British Parliament 1847-1852. Practiced at Bombay bar after retirement.
3		William Adams	1859-1860	Did not act as AG and was appointed acting Chief Justice immediately on arrival in Hong Kong and then appointed as Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
4		Sir John Smale	1860-1866	Appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1866
5		Sir Julian Pauncefote	1866-1873	Appointed Chief Justice of the Leeward Islands 1874. Later had a very illustrious career in the Foreign Office. Became Lord Pauncefote in 1899.
6		Sir John Bramston	1873-1876	Appointed Assistant Under Secretary of State in the Colonial Office 1876.
7		Sir George Phillippo	1876-1879	First non-British-born AG, Phillippo was born in Jamaica. He left to become Chief Justice of Gibraltar 1879 to 1882 and returned to appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1882. In 1897 he became British High Consul in Geneva, Switzerland.
8		Sir Edward O'Malley	1880-1889	Appointed Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements 1889 and Chief Justice of British Guiana 1895.
9		Sir W. Meigh Goodman, QC/KC	1890-1902	Appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1902.
10		Sir Henry Spencer Berkeley, KC	1902-1906	Previously Chief Justice of Fiji 1889-1902. Retired to practice at Hong Kong bar 1906, but acted as AG in 1909.
11		Sir William Rees Davies, KC	1907-1912	Appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1912.
12		Sir John Bucknill, KC	1912-1914	Appointed Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements 1914 and Puisne Judge of the Patna High Court in Patna, British India 1920.
13		Sir Joseph Kemp, KC	1914-1930	Puisne Judge, Hong Kong, prior to appointment 1913-1914. Next appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong 1930.
14		Sir C. Grenville Alabaster, KC	1930-1946	Interned in Stanley Internment Camp during World War II and retired after the war.
		World War II	December 1941 - March 1946	British administration suspended during Japanese occupation during World War II. Military Government from August 1945 to March 1946.
15		John Bowes Griffin, KC	1946-1951	Appointed in December 1946. G.E. Strickland, acted as AG before Bowes Griffin's appointment. Bowes Griffin was next appointed Chief Justice of Uganda 1952. Was acting Chief Justice of Northern Rhodesia 1957, Speaker of the Legislative Council in Uganda 1958-1962 and Speaker of the Ugandan National Assembly 1962-1963.
16	Click Here	Arthur Ridehalgh, KC/QC	1952-1961	Last AG to be a KC. Retired on a pension.
17	Click Here	Maurice Heenan, QC	1962-1966	Non-British-born (born in New Zealand). Crown Counsel prior to appointment. Resigned to join United Nations as Deputy Director of the General Legal Division 1966-1973, then as General Counsel for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees in Beirut 1973-1977. Died in the United States.
18	Click Here	Denys Roberts, QC	1966-1973	Appointed Colonial/Chief Secretary (1973-1979) and then Chief Justice of Hong Kong. Retired on a pension.
19	Click Here	John Hobley, QC	1973-1979	Served as Crown Counsel in Hong Kong 1953-1973, briefly as Attorney General of Bermuda 1972-1973 and Solicitor General of Hong Kong 1973. Retired on a pension in 1979.
20	Click Here	John Griffiths, QC	1979-1983	Last non-British-born AG - born in Persia (now Iran). Entered private practice at the English and Hong Kong bars after retirement until 2012.
21	Click Here	Michael Thomas, QC	1983-1988	Last QC to be AG. Entered private practice at Hong Kong and English bars after retirement.
22	Click Here	Jeremy Mathews	1988 - 30 June 1997	First solicitor to be appointed AG. Last AG. Retired at end of British rule in Hong Kong.

Secretaries for Justice after 1997

Politiical party:       Nonpartisan       Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB)

№	Portrait	Name (Born–Died)	Term of office			Political Party	Qualification	Chief Executive	Term	Ref
			Took office	Left office	Duration
1		Elsie Leung Oi-sie 梁愛詩 (1939–)	1 July 1997	19 October 2005	8 years, 110 days	Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong	Solicitor/Legal Advisor to Chief Executive-Designate (1996–1997)	Tung Chee-hwa	1
									2
								Donald Tsang
2		Wong Yan-lung 黃仁龍 (1963–)	20 October 2005	30 June 2012	6 years, 255 days	Nonpartisan	Senior Counsel		3
3		Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung 袁國強 (1964–)	1 July 2012	Incumbent	3 years, 272 days	Nonpartisan	Senior Counsel	Leung Chun-ying	4

See also

• Attorney general
• Justice minister
• Minister of Justice (France), who performs similar functions to his or her Hong Kong counterpart

References

1. Article 53, Hong Kong Basic Law
2. Article 63, Hong Kong Basic Law