New Zealand judge Terence Arnold appointed to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal

A new overseas non-permanent judge has been appointed to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA) following a spate of resignations – and subsequent criticism from some former jurists – since the introduction of national security legislation.

Joining five other foreign jurists from common law jurisdictions serving on the top court, New Zealand’s Terence Arnold was appointed as a non-permanent judge on Friday, a judiciary statement said.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung welcomed Hong Kong leader John Lee’s decision to accept the recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission. Arnold’s appointment will go to the Legislative Council for approval.

In a separate government statement, Chief Executive Lee is quoted as saying that the presence of the six overseas jurists “is a manifestation of the independence of the Judiciary in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as protected by the Basic Law.”

“Their participation demonstrates a high degree of confidence in the HKSAR’s judicial system, and enables Hong Kong to maintain strong links with other common law jurisdictions,” Lee added.

The presence of overseas judges on the city’s top court, hailing from other common law jurisdictions, has long been seen as a vote of confidence in Hong Kong’s judicial system from the international community.

Hong Kong’s justice minister Paul Lam has downplayed the departure of foreign judges in recent years, saying it is not about their numbers but whether the judges have “a good international reputation.”

The judiciary’s statement said that Arnold’s appointment “will provide greater flexibility” in dealing with the top court’s caseload.

Arnold has served as a judge on the Supreme Court of New Zealand since 2013. He retired from its permanent bench in 2017 at the age of 70, but continues to sit as a retired judge.

He was Solicitor-General of New Zealand from 2000 to 2006 before he was made a judge of the Court of Appeal.

Arnold was appointed to the 2018 inquiry into the New Zealand Special Air Service’s killing of at least six civilians and the wounding of 15 in Operation Burnham, a military operation in Afghanistan’s Tirgiran Valley in August 2010.

Resignations

Arnold’s appointment comes after Australian judge William Gummow, an overseas non-permanent judge for the Hong Kong court, died last month aged 83.

Australian judge Robert French resigned from Hong Kong’s top court in April 2025, saying the role of overseas non-permanent judges on the CFA had become “increasingly anachronistic and arguably cosmetic.”

Anthony Murray Gleeson from Australia did not renew his term when it ended in February 2024, citing old age; UK judges Jonathan Sumption and Lawrence Collins quit in June 2024 before their terms ended; while Canada’s Beverley McLachlin and the UK’s Nicholas Phillips did not extend their terms.

Sumption said that Hong Kong was “slowly becoming a totalitarian state” in an opinion piece for the Financial Times days after his resignation, saying judges operate in an “almost impossible political environment created by China.”

The other five overseas judges are Leonard Hoffmann, David Neuberger, Patrick Keane, James Allsop, and William Young.

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James Lee is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press with an interest in culture and social issues. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he witnessed the institution’s transformation over the course of the 2019 extradition bill protests and after the passing of the Beijing-imposed security law.

Since joining HKFP in 2023, he has covered local politics, the city’s housing crisis, as well as landmark court cases including the 47 democrats national security trial. He was previously a reporter at The Standard where he interviewed pro-establishment heavyweights and extensively covered the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong’s political overhauls under the national security law.