The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region allows judges from other common law jurisdictions to sit on the Court of Final Appeal. Since 1997, one overseas non-permanent judge has sat on the bench of the Court of Final Appeal in nearly all substantive appeals. The chapter provides an overview of the identities of the overseas non-permanent judges over the Court’s 24-year history and outlines how the working practices of the Court have developed to support their involvement in Hong Kong’s judiciary. An assessment of the benefits that overseas non-permanent judges provide the Court of Final Appeal and the contributions they have made to the development of the law and legal system of Hong Kong show that the use of foreign judges in Hong Kong has been highly successful.

For eight years between 2011 and 2019, I, a French professor of law, served as a judge of the Constitutional Court of Andorra, the only woman to have been appointed to that Court since its establishment in 1993. This chapter presents a critical analysis of being a judge in Andorra, informed by the distinctive history and features of constitutional justice in the small state situated between two powerful European neighbours, and by my own personal experience. It provides insights into how the process of appointing judges and the organisation of work within the Constitutional Court accommodate foreign judges, and how diversity on the bench – in terms of the legal culture, mastery of language, professional training, gender, and the psychology of the judges – influences the way in which constitutional justice is delivered in Andorra.

The third chapter describes how the the re-definition of the ECJ’s role from the 1960s onwards has affected its procedural and organisational law. It is well known that through decisions such as Van Gend en Loos and Costa v ENEL, the ECJ contributed to changing its mandate: from protecting the interests of the Member States to aiming to establish EU law as an autonomous and effective legal system. This chapter tells the story of how the Court’s procedure, organisation and decision-making was adpated to effectively exercise this new role. The chapter shows in detail the vast transformation the Court’s organisation and decision-making has undergone. It explains how the role of the ECJ judge was developed from state representative to neutral expert, how an inner circle of ECJ participants gradually formed that plays a central role for the acceptance and dissemination of the Court’s case law and which procedural mechanisms were devised to make ECJ decision-making more hierarchical in order to foster and maintain consistency in the Court’s case law.

Working alongside sultans were great numbers of men who were highly skilled in administrative and military matters who aided the ruler in the imperial project. Running an empire demanded trustworthy individuals who could implement the king’s political agenda. This was made possible by the administrative system with all its various offices and distribution of responsibilities. The highest office belonged to the vizier or chief minister whose portfolio included a vast array of duties. But the vizier was not simply one of the “men of the pen” or an intellectual mouthpiece. The office of vizier existed since Abbasid times and saw various changes over the course of Islamic history. This chapter demonstrates how those individuals had a major impact on the history of Islamicate South Asia.