- Yang Ti-liang
Infobox_ President
name= _en. The Hon. Sir Ti-liang Yang
original_name = 楊鐵樑爵士
order2=Chief Justice of Hong Kong
term_start2=1988
term_end2=1996
predecessor2=Sir Denys Roberts
successor2=Noel Power (Acting)
birth_date=Birth date and age|1929|6|30|mf=y
birth_place=
death_date=
death_place=Sir Ti-Liang Yang [Sir TL does not have an English name for himself. He believes it is unnecessary for him. He once said that
Sun Yat-sen didn't have an English name also, so he was "as famous as Sun". (得失之間 楊鐵樑, 壹週刊時事專訪,August 7 ,2003 )] , GBM, JP (Traditional Chinese :楊鐵樑爵士, bornJune 30 1929 ), also known as Sir TL, is a retired seniorjudge inHong Kong . He was Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1988 to 1996 and was the first ethnic Chinese to hold this office during the British colonial rule. In 1996, Sir TL resigned and became a candidate inHong Kong Chief Executive election, 1996 , where he lost to his opponentTung Chee Hwa . After thetransfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong , he was appointed as non-official member of the Executive Council by Tung and retired in 2002.In retirement, Sir TL now mainly focuses on writing and teaching English. In
September 2003, he became the host of aRTHK radio programme called "Yang Ti-liang Mail Box" (楊鐵樑留言信箱), teaching English grammar to the audiences.Biography
Early years
Yang was born in
Shanghai onJune 30 1929 to an influential family which had roots in what wasNanguan inXiangshan , nowZhongshan ,Guangdong Province since the early twelfth century, although they had resided inShanghai since the early nineteenth century. His earlier ancestors lived inGuangling city, nowGuangling District ofYangzhou . They and subsequent generations werescholar-officials andscholar-gentry . Only one or two, possibly three, were soldiers. Yang Yichen a.k.a. Yang Qianshou was a senior imperial officer during theTaiping Rebellion serving underZeng Guofan ,Zuo Zongtang andLi Hongzhang . He was raised to the rank ofBaron . There was a Provincial/General Commander-in-Chief in the thirteenth century, and another died at the hands of the rebelChen Qiyu inGuizhou in the seventeenth century.He has a sister and two brothers and he is the youngest amongst them. Yang's great-grandfather,
Yang Guixuan , and grandfather,Yang Meinan , were trading partners withSwire in Shanghai and his father,Yang Shaonan (楊少南), was a manager of Swire who later established a shipping company with Swire as his co-partner. Yang's mother was Chun Sinyu (陳蒨如), a modern woman who was educated at St Mary Middle School in Shanghai. Her father and grandfather,Chen Xuejie (Chun Shut-kai ) andChen Keliang (Chun Ko-liang ), were also trading partners with Swire.Born in a family of comfortable means, Yang attended the well-known St John Middle School (same foundation as St. John's University) in his early years and read
law in the Comparative Law School of China inSoochow University from 1946 to 1949. Due to the disturbance of theChinese Civil War , he moved very briefly toHong Kong after graduation. And then he read law atUCL in Britain. He graduated from there in 1953 achieving honours inLLB . Later in 1954, he was again called to the bar with honours atGray's Inn .After his study in
England , Yang returned toHong Kong in 1955. Initially, he worked in his father-in-law'sbarrister chambers . During that time, there was no vacancy in the government legal service, but Yang was able to manage a job interview held by the then Chief Justice Sir Michael Hogan.Judicial career
In
June 1956, after a long wait, the government eventually offered him a post in the magistracy asmagistrate . Yang soon took the post and was promoted as senior magistrate in 1963. Shortly after the promotion, he received ascholarship and became a Rockefeller Fellow at theInstitute of Advanced Legal Studies ,University of London from 1963 to 1964.Yang was acting
District Judge from 1964 to 1968. During that period, he was chairman of the Kowloon Disturbances Claims Assessment Board and following the 1967 Leftist Riots, he also presided over the Compensation Board. In 1968, he was appointed District Judge of the Victoria District Court and was made a member of theChinese Language Committee and president of the Legal Sub-Committee in 1970. Later in 1971, Yang was the presiding judge of the "Poisoned horses case " and was for a brief period actingPuisne Judge in the same year. In 1972, he was again Commissioner of Inquiry into the Rainstorm Disasters.On
February 17 ,1975 , Yang presided over the trial ofPeter Fitzroy Godber , a formerKowloon 's Deputy District Commissioner of theRoyal Hong Kong Police Force who was charged with corruption. The trial lasted for 6 days only and Godber was sentenced 4 years inprison . In the same year, Yang was promoted as judge of the High Court. Later in 1976, he chaired the Commission of Inquiry into theLeung Wing-sang Case, a case in which a Station Sergeant, Lau Cheong-wah, allegedly induced Leung to confess to wounding another person by paying him $10,000. Again in 1980, Yang was chairman of the Commission of Inquiry into Inspector MacLennan's Case, investigating the dubious suicide of thehomosexual Police Inspector ,John MacLennan . Besides, he was also member of theLaw Reform Commission and chairman of the Sub-Committee on Law Relating to Homosexuality in 1980.Yang was appointed Justice of Appeal in 1981. In 1987, he was appointed Vice-President of the Court of Appeal. In
March 1988, Yang was appointed Chief Justice of Hong Kong under the recommendation by then Governor Sir David Wilson. This was the first time an ethnic Chinese held this office. Prior to the appointment, he also received a customaryknighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year Honours List.LondonGazette|issue=51171|supp=yes|startpage=2|date=30 December 1987 |accessdate=2008-02-22] According to customary practice, past Chief Justices of Hong Kong would become Chief Justice ofBrunei Darussalam . However, Yang's predecessor, Sir Denys Tudor Emil Roberts continued to serve as Chief Justice of Brunei Darussalam after his retirement. Sir TL was instead appointed as president of Court of Appeal of Brunei onMay 24 1988 . He resigned this post onMay 16 1993 and was succeeded by JusticeKutlu Tekin Fuad , a retired Hong Kong Court of Appeal judge. As Chief Justice of Hong Kong, Sir TL enthusiastically initiated a series of reforms on the localCommon Law system in order to face the challenges after thetransfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997. In 1995, he broke the 152-year-old judicial tradition of Hong Kong by introducingChinese language into local courts.CE election
In 1996, Sir TL decided to contest the first ever Chief Executive election and submitted his resignation to then governor
Chris Patten . In addition, he renounced hisBritish citizenship and wrote a letter to QueenElizabeth II to give up his knighthood [Although Sir TL could returned his insignia and ceased to use the title by doing so, officially he was still recorded as being a knight. Honours are only removed via forfeiture procedures. Therefore, from the law's perspective, he never actually renounced his knighthood.] . Before the election, he organized a series of campaigns, including visitingpublic housing estates , and travelled on theMTR for the first time in his life. The election for Chief Executive was held onDecember 11 ,1996 . Yang was defeated byTung Chee Hwa , a shipping magnate who received 320 votes out of 400 votes from theElection Committee . On the contrary, Yang came second by gaining 42 votes.Despite losing in the CE election, Yang was appointed a Non-Official Member of the Executive Council by Tung soon after the establishment of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region . During his tenure in the Council, he was chairman of theExchange Fund Investment Ltd from 1998 to 2002 and was responsible to the management of theTracker Fund of Hong Kong . From 1999 to 2004, he was also chairman of theICAC Complaints Committee.Yang was awarded a
Grand Bauhinia Medal by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 1999 in order to acknowledge his contribution to legal justice andhigher education in Hong Kong. In 2002, he retired from the Executive Council. Soon after he resumed the usage of his knighthood.Public service
Early from 1981 to 1984, Sir TL was chairman of the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee. From 1985 to 2001, he became chairman of the
University of Hong Kong Council. Besides, he was also Pro-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1994 to 2001. During his Pro-Chancellorship, he was designated by the University to investigate the Public Opinion Programme Disputes in 2000. Since 1998, he has been the chairman of theHong Kong Red Cross .Sir TL was also President of the
Bentham Club ,UCL in the year 1991. In 1988, he was elected an Honorary Bencher ofGray's Inn .Contributions to education
After retiring from Executive Council, Sir TL spent much of his time teaching
English grammar andetiquette . InSeptember , 2003, he even became the host of a RTHK radio programme called Yang Ti-liang Mail Box (楊鐵樑留言信箱), teaching English grammar to the audiences and answering questions on hiswebsite .He has been honorary professor of Chinese at the
University of Hong Kong since 1998. In 2005, he was appointed honorary professor and chairman of the Executive Committee of the School of Law by theChinese University of Hong Kong [" [http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ipro/pressrelease/050330e.htm Sir T L Yang and Dr Anthony Neoh SC at the helm of the CUHK Law School] ",CUHK ,March 30 ,2005 ] . He lends his name to the School of Law society for all undergraduates and postgraduates. And in 2006 he was made honorary professor of Social Sciences at theOpen University of Hong Kong.Family
Yang married
Eileen Barbara Tam inLondon in 1954. Eileen was the daughter of the Hon. William Thomas Tam O.B.E., J.P., a renownedlawyer ,magistrate and one timeLegislative Councillor in Hong Kong before the second war.Yang has 2 sons. His younger son married the youngest daughter of
Patrick Yu . Yang and Barbara were well known for their conjugal love. Sadly, Barbara died onJune 24 ,2006 at the age of 74.Translated works
As a renowned
translator , Yang has translated numbers of famousChinese classics into English, they include:*"General Yue Fei", 1995 (《說岳全傳》)
*"The Peach Blossom Fan", 1998 (《桃花扇》)
*"Officialdom Unmasked", 2001 (《官場現形記》)Honours
*Kt. (1988)
*S.P.M.B. (1990, first class)
*J.P. (July 1 ,1998 )
*G.B.M. (1999)Honorary degrees
*
Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hon.LLD , 1984)
*University of Hong Kong (Hon.DLitt , 1991)
*Hong Kong Polytechnic (Hon.LLD , 1992)Fellows
*
University College London (1989)
*Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (1990)ee also
*
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong
*Tung Chee Hwa Footnotes
References
English materials
*" [http://www.csb.gov.hk/hkgcsb/csn/csn59/59e/i61.html Former Chief Justice warns not to let language deteriorate] ", Pensioners' Corner, Civil Service Newsletter Editorial Board, retrieved on
September 1
*" [http://www.redcross.org.hk/home.cfm?Mid=1402&FMid=4&SMid=23&popup=0&langid=1 The Hon. Sir Ti Liang Yang, GBM, JP Curriculum Vitae] ",Hong Kong Red Cross , 2005
*" [http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr02-03/english/panels/se/papers/hsse0718ls-80-e.pdf Information Paper for the Joint Meeting of the Panel on Security and Panel on Health Services to be held on 29 April 2003] ",Hong Kong Legislative Council , retrieved onSeptember 1 ,2007
*" [http://www.judicial.gov.bn/then_judge.htm History of The Supreme Court of Brunei Darussalam] ", retrieved onSeptember 1 ,2007 Chinese materials
*"得失之間 楊鐵樑", 壹週刊時事專訪,August 7 ,2003
*" [http://www.rthk.org.hk/elearning/yangtl/yangtl_info.htm 楊鐵樑簡介] ", 楊鐵樑留言信箱,RTHK , retrieved onSeptember 1 ,2007 External links
* [http://www.rthk.org.hk/elearning/yangtl/ Sir TL's Website by RTHK] (in Chinese)
* [http://www.redcross.org.hk/home.cfm?Mid=1401&FMid=83&SMid=88&popup=0&langid=2 CV of Sir TL Yang] ,Hong Kong Red Cross
* [http://www3.hku.hk/eroonweb/hongrads/person.php?id=184 Yang, Sir Ti-liang] , address from HKU###@@@KEYEND@@@###
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