15 Facts About Wally Yeung

Wally Yeung Chun-kuen is the Commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance and a retired Hong Kong judge.

Wally Yeung was called to the Hong Kong Bar in 1976 and was a barrister in private practice until 1985.

Wally Yeung joined the bench as a Permanent Magistrate in 1985 and was promoted to the District Court two years later.

In 1995, Wally Yeung was appointed as a Judge of the High Court of Justice.

Wally Yeung was elevated to the Court of Appeal on 6May 2002, along with fellow Court of First Instance judge Maria Yuen.

In 2007, Wally Yeung took over as Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry investigating alleged government interference into academic freedom at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, after Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing had recused himself to avoid the appearance of partiality.

Wally Yeung was appointed because, unlike Woo, he was acquainted with neither Arthur Li nor Fanny Law.

Wally Yeung was appointed as Vice President of the Court of Appeal on 25July 2011.

Wally Yeung was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star on 1July 2021, in recognition of his dedicated and distinguished service in the Judiciary over the preceding 36 years.

Wally Yeung's appointment took effect on 17 August 2021 for a term of 3 years.

Wally Yeung overturned the magistrate's ruling of guilt because the Chinese version of the by-law, unlike the English version, did not prohibit "additions" in general but only "building additional construction or building works", and in the event of inability to reconcile the two equally authentic versions of the by-law, he was obligated to choose the interpretation which favoured the defendant.

Wally Yeung would go on to become the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Translation of Case Precedents, which oversaw a three-month pilot project from January to April 1999 to produce Chinese translations of twenty-five judgments of precedential value identified by the Judiciary, the Bar Association, the Law Society, and the Department of Justice.

Wally Yeung found that the seventeen mainland-born applicants were not entitled to the right of abode by virtue of their parents' Hong Kong permanent resident status until they had obtained Certificates of Entitlement, and thus refused to overturn the removal order issued against them by the Director of Immigration.

Wally Yeung was a Fellow of the College Council of St John's College, University of Hong Kong, and was the President of the College Council from 2013 to 2021.

Wally Yeung is President of the Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention of Hong Kong.