Supreme Court of Hong Kong

The Supreme Court was established in 1844 after Hong Kong became a British Crown colony under the Treaty of Nanjing. The first sitting of the court was on 1 October 1844 presided over by the first Chief Justice, John Walter Hulme.Norton-Kyshe, James, History the Laws of Hong Kong, p64

For almost 70 years after establishment of the court, there was no Court of Appeal in Hong Kong. Appeals were either by way of re-hearing or made directly to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. From 1913, appeals were heard by a Full Court made up of 3 judges. From 1913 to 1943, a judge of the British Supreme Court for China in Shanghai was eligible to sit on the Full Court. In the 1910s and 1920s, a Shanghai judge would regularly travel to Hong Kong to sit on the Full Court. Sir Havilland de Sausmarez, a judge of the Shanghai court, was the President of the Full Court from 1910 to 1920. From 1926 to 1941, a judge of the Hong Kong Supreme Court also sat on the full court of the British Supreme Court for China.Clark, Douglas, Gunboat Justice, Vol 2, p179-181

The Court of Appeal was established in 1976.Supreme Court Ordinance 1975, which came into effect in 1976 Appeals from the Court of Appeal and Full Court and, certain criminal appeals from the High Court, lay to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hkcfa.hk/en/about/overview/index.html|title=Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal – A Brief Overview of the Court of Final Appeal}} In order to appeal to the Privy Council, leave to appeal was required either from the court appealed from or the Privy Council.

After the transfer of sovereignty the Supreme Court was renamed as the High Court and the High Court of the former Supreme Court was renamed the Court of First Instance.{{cite web |url=http://www.hklii.hk/eng/hk/legis/instrument/101/s81.html |title=Article 81 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China |publisher=hklii.hk |accessdate=2015-01-24 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150124231222/http://www.hklii.hk/eng/hk/legis/instrument/101/s81.html |archive-date=24 January 2015 |url-status=dead }} Appeals from the Court of Appeal (and where there is such a direct appeal, the Court of First Instance) are now heard by the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, which was established on 1 July 1997.Court of Final Appeal Ordinance

• 1844–1848: A building at the junction of Wyndham and Wellington Streets
• 1848–?: Exchange Building, 7 Queen's Road, Central, a building originally erected for Dent & Co. by Tam Achoy.{{cite book|last=Carroll|first=John M|title=Edge of Empires: Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong|publisher=Harvard University Press|date=30 June 2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0sNxCS2kuwC|page=26|isbn=9780674029231}}
• 1889–1911: No. 29 Queen's Road, Central, between the Post Office and Land Office{{cite book|title=Mapping Hong Kong|last=Empson|first=Hal|publisher=Government Information Services|place=Hong Kong|date=1992|pages=163, 165 (Plates 3-2, 3–4)}}
• 1912–1980: The old Supreme Court Building – until 2012, the Legislative Council Building at 8 Jackson Road, Central, Hong Kong Island. It became the new seat of the Hong Kong Court of Final AppealAppeal in September 2015.
• 1980–1983: The Former French Mission Building,Finance Committee – Public Works Subcommittee (Papers) 8 Nov 95: [http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr95-96/english/fc/pwsc/papers/pw081158.htm "Conversion of the French Mission Building into the Court of Final Appeal"] later home to the Court of Final Appeal (1997–2015)
• 1985–1997: The new Supreme Court Building – now the High Court Building at 38 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island

A full history of the Supreme Court up to the early 20th Century is in James William Norton-Kyshe's:

• [https://archive.org/details/historylawsandc00nortgoog/page/n7 The History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong: Tracing Consular Jurisdiction in China and Japan and including Parliamentary Debates: And the Rise, Progress, and Successive Changes in the Various Public Institutions of the Colony from the Earliest Period to the Present]

• Judiciary of Hong Kong
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong
• Maurice Heenan
• Sir Ti-Liang Yang
• Sir Denys Roberts
• Sir Noel Power
• Sir George Phillippo
• Sir Havilland de Sausmarez

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{{Asia topic|Supreme Court of|title=Supreme Courts of Asia}}

Category:Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1997

Category:1844 establishments in Hong Kong

Category:Courts and tribunals established in 1844

Category:1997 disestablishments in Hong Kong