First Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal (1997-2010)
Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal on 1 July 1997.
Chief Justice Li was born in Hong Kong in 1948. He received his secondary education in Hong Kong and England. He obtained an MA and an LLM from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He was called to the English Bar at the Middle Temple in 1970 and to the Hong Kong Bar in 1973. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1988.
Before joining the Judiciary, Chief Justice Li practised at the Hong Kong Bar. He was appointed a Deputy Judge of the District Court of Hong Kong in 1982 and a Deputy High Court Judge in 1991.
Chief Justice Li has a long record of public service. He was a member of the Executive Council and a Steward of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. He also served on numerous boards and committees, including as Chairman of the University and Polytechnics Grants Committee and the Land Development Corporation, Vice Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Council of St Paul’s Co-Educational College and Deputy Chairman of the Board of Review of Inland Revenue.
Chief Justice Li received honorary degrees from 13 universities: eight in Hong Kong, three in Australia (including the University of New South Wales), Tsinghua University and the University of Oxford.
He was made an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple in 1997 and an Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam College Cambridge in 1999.
Chief Justice Li was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2008. He received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service and the Sing Tao Leader of the Year Award in 2010. He was made an Honorary Life Member of the Hong Kong Bar Association and of the Law Society of Hong Kong respectively in 2011.
He is a trustee of the Friends of Tsinghua University Law School Charitable Trust and a Guest Professor of the Tsinghua University. He is Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and Shue Yan University.
(Clockwise: The Honourable Mr Justice Roberto Alexandre Vieira RIBEIRO, The Honourable Mr Justice Syed Kemal Shah BOKHARY, The Honouable Mr Justice Patrick CHAN Siu-Oi and The Honourable Mr Andrew LI Kwok-nang)
Photograph Courtesy of Mr. Daniel Wan