Hong Kong’s legislature has confirmed the appointment of British judge Patrick Hodge to the top court of the city, as pro-Beijing lawmakers use the opportunity to criticize London’s meddling in local affairs.

The overwhelmingly Beijing-loyal legislature discussed the matter on Wednesday after Chief Executive Carrie Lam accepted the recommendation of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission last month to name Lord Hodge as a non-permanent judge from another common law jurisdiction to serve on the Court of Final Appeal.

Lord Hodge has been deputy president of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court since February. He was a well-respected judge and was due to start the three-year tenure next month if approved, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said during the legislative debate.

The British jurist’s appointment would take the number of foreign judges at the top court to 14 after Australian James Spigelman in September resigned, citing national security law concerns.

One Beijing loyalist said in the debate that the U.K. often interfered in Hong Kong affairs. Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong did not run a system of separation of powers, but an executive-led mechanism with checks and balances, and the U.K. should not be mistaken, Business and Professional Alliance lawmaker Priscilla Leung said.

Holden Chow, of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, supported the proposed appointment but said that Lord Hodge and other foreign judges should have a full understanding of the constitutional order under the “one country, two systems” principle.

The government should have issued a public clarification after a judge smeared Hong Kong’s national security law, Chow said, without naming Spigelman. He also repeated his call for the government to set up a sentencing committee in response to public concerns that punishments handed down to protesters did not have a deterrent effect.

Junius Ho suggested that since the Basic Law did not lay down the required nationalities of foreign judges, Hong Kong could invite judges from other common law nations to serve, such as Brunei, India or Malaysia.

Fellow lawmaker Paul Tse said it was fine to have foreign judges presiding over cases involving international trade, but it was not necessary to assign them to those that were about Hong Kong-mainland relations or gay marriage.

Regina Ip disagreed, saying it was valuable to engage foreign judges, as such an arrangement was set out in the Basic Law and passed by the legislature before the handover in 1997. She opposed appointing jurists from Brunei since its judicial system was still in an early stage of development.

Following the mass resignations of democrats last month, the legislature has only two lawmakers who are not from the pro-Beijing camp. Medical-sector lawmaker Pierre Chan supported Lord Hodge’s appointment and opposed the idea of a sentencing committee as the existing system allowed for appeals against sentences and complaints about judges.

Civic Passion lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai, the other non-Beijing-loyalist, also said no to a new sentencing committee as he believed that judges, compared to lawmakers, would have better knowledge on handing down punishment. Cheng also raised concerns about whether foreign judges who ruled on national security cases could be seen as infringing their oaths, since they might have to take an oath to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to Hong Kong in light of proposed legislative amendments.

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