HONG KONG: Two senior British judges have resigned from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal, the city’s judiciary said Thursday, as concerns deepened over judicial independence after the recent enactment of a new national security law.

Lawrence Collins, 83, and Jonathan Sumption, 75, both former justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, have “tendered their respective resignations to the Chief Executive”, Hong Kong’s judiciary said in a statement.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung would “shortly issue a statement in response”, the judiciary added.

Collins joined the court in 2011 while Sumption joined in 2019.

Judges from common law jurisdictions are invited to sit as non-permanent members at Hong Kong’s top court, which is separate from mainland China’s opaque, party-controlled legal system.

Appointments of these overseas judges “help maintain a high degree of confidence in (Hong Kong’s) judicial system” and enables the city to keep strong ties with other common law jurisdictions, city leader John Lee said in March.

The resignations were the first since Hong Kong enacted a homegrown national security law in March, on top of another security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 to quell dissent in the former British colony.

The United Nations, the European Unions as well as countries like the United States and Britain have raised concerns that the new security law will further curtail human rights and civil liberties.