Silk speech: Chief Justice Andrew Li speaks at the ceremonial opening of the 2010 Legal Year.

The process of judicial appointments should not be politicised, to ensure judicial independence. This was the message from Chief Justice Andrew Li at the ceremonial opening of the 2010 Legal Year today.

"In our jurisdiction, it has not been politicised and I trust it will never be. This includes the endorsement process in the Legislative Council for the most senior judicial appointments," Mr Li said.

He added he is glad to see LegCo has adopted a procedure for dealing with endorsement which ensures that while enabling it to discharge its duty, the process is not politicised. He is confident the council will deal with the process of endorsement without politicising it.

Noting it is now more than 12 years since Hong Kong entered the new constitutional order as part of China under the 'One country, two systems' principle, Mr Li said during this period judicial independence has been universally recognised and accepted to be of pivotal importance to Hong Kong.

"The constitutional guarantees for an independent Judiciary have been fully implemented. Further conventions and practices which accord with judicial independence have developed."

He said the number of judicial review applications filed had grown to 149 in 2005 from 116 in 2001. The number ranged from 132 in 2006 to 147 in 2008. Last year, 144 applications were filed and of the 119 cases dealt with, leave was granted in 63 and refused in 56 cases.

"In the past two years a substantial number of applications for judicial review were refused at the initial leave stage because they failed to meet the threshold test of a reasonably arguable case laid down by the Court of Final Appeal in November 2007. These figures provide food for thought and the community may consider it worthwhile to reflect on them," Mr Li said.