Paul Ivy Sterling was a British lawyer and Judge. He served as the first Attorney General of Hong Kong and as a Puisne Judge in Ceylon .
Sterling was the eldest son of Reverend Joseph Sterling of Queen's County, Ireland. [1]
Sterling was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He entered King's Inn, Dublin and Gray's Inn in London. He was called to the Irish Bar, Michaelmas Term, 1829. [2]
Stirling was appointed the first Attorney General of Hong Kong in 1844. He arrived with his family in Hong Kong on the Surge on 28 July 1844. He also held the appointment of Legal Adviser to the Superintendency of Trade. He was also appointed a member of the Executive Council.
Sterling was one of the first three lawyers to be admitted to practice before the Hong Kong courts. On the first sitting of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong on 1 October 1844, he was admitted to practice as a barrister together with Henry Charles Sirr, barrister and Mr Edward Farcomb, solicitor.
On 2 October 1844, he prosecuted the first criminal case before the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, which was a case of abduction where a husband and wife had induced two young women to enter a boat and then sold them for $90 each in Canton.
Sterling acted for periods of time as Chief Justice of Hong Kong in the absence of the Chief Justice John Walter Hulme. [3] One case he decided in 1852, Tromson v Dent involving the shipment of opium from Calcutta to Hong Kong was upheld by the Privy Council in 1853. [4]
He served as Attorney General until 1855, when he was appointed a Puisne Judge in Ceylon. His appointment to Ceylon appears to have been received in Hong Kong without much regret. [5]
In 1860, he was appointed acting Chief Justice of Ceylon on the death of Sir Carpenter Crowe [6]
in 1861 when departing on leave from Ceylon, Allens Indian Mail described Sterling as follows:
"If not a brilliant lawyer, he was at least painstaking and a respected judge, irreplaceable in all relations of life." [7]
Sterling retired on a pension in 1863.
He died on 23 August 1880 at Southsea, Hampshire. [8]
Julian Pauncefote, 1st Baron Pauncefote, known as Sir Julian Pauncefote between 1874 and 1899, was a British barrister, judge and diplomat. He was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1882 and 1889 when he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States and would be the last to use that title, as the office was upgraded to that of Ambassador to the United States in 1893. Elevated to the peerage as Baron Pauncefote in 1899, he died in office in 1902.
Sir George Phillippo was Chief Justice of Hong Kong in the late 19th century. He often attended the Legislative Council of Hong Kong sittings from around 1884 to 1888.
Sir James Russell was an Irish colonial administrator in Hong Kong and served as Chief Justice of Hong Kong from 1888 to 1892.
Thomas Chisholm Anstey was an English lawyer and one of the first Catholic parliamentarians in the nineteenth century. He served as Attorney General of Hong Kong for 4 years. He also wrote pamphlets on legal and political topics, particularly those relevant to Roman Catholics.
Sir Francis Fleming, was a British lawyer and colonial administrator who held appointments in eleven colonies.
Henry Charles Sirr (1807-1872) was a British lawyer, diplomat and writer. He graduated at Trinity College, Dublin and became a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, London. Eventually he went into government service, working as Deputy Queen's Advocate for the Southern Circuit of Ceylon in the mid-19th century.
Sir Hector Horace Hearne was an English barrister and judge.
The chief justice of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is the head of the judiciary of Sri Lanka and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Established in 1801, the chief justice is one of ten Supreme Court justices; the other nine are the puisne justices of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The post was created in 1801. The chief justice is nominated by the Constitutional Council, and appointed by the president. The first chief justice was Codrington Edmund Carrington. The current acting chief justice is Murdu Nirupa Fernando.
Geoffrey Ma Tao-li is a retired Hong Kong judge who served as the 2nd Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal—the court of last resort in Hong Kong. Between 2001 and 2010, he held various positions in the High Court of Hong Kong, including Chief Judge, Justice of Appeal, and Judge of the Court of First Instance. Before his judicial career, he was a barrister-at-law in private practice at Temple Chambers, and was qualified to practice in England and Wales, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore.
William Henry Adams was a British politician, lawyer and colonial judge. His final appointment was as Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
Andrew Cheung Kui-nung is a Hong Kong judge who serves as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal. He previously served as a Permanent Judge of the same court. He was the 4th and longest-serving Chief Judge of the High Court.
Sir Joseph Horsford Kemp, CBE, KC (1874-1950) was an Anglo-Irish lawyer and judge. He served as Attorney General and Chief Justice of Hong Kong in the early 1930s.
Sir John Jackson Smale was a British lawyer and judge. He served as Attorney General and the longest-serving Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
John Walter Hulme (1805-1861) was a British lawyer and Judge. He was the first Chief Justice of Hong Kong, taking office in 1844.
Sir William Meigh Goodman was a British lawyer and Judge. He served as Attorney General and Chief Justice of British Honduras and Hong Kong in the late 19th and early 20th Century.
Sir John Worrell Carrington, was a British jurist, elected representative, and colonial administrator between 1872 and 1902. He served the Caribbean colonies of Barbados, St. Lucia, Tobago, Grenada, and British Guiana until his final appointment as Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
Sir Michael Joseph Patrick Hogan, was an Irish lawyer and judge in the British Empire. He served as Chief Justice of Hong Kong for 14 years.
James William Norton-Kyshe (1855–1920) was a British barrister and legal author. The Registrar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong from 1895 to 1904, he published a number of law books including the compendious and oft-cited History of the Laws and Courts of Hong Kong (1898).
Hugh Norman Gregory Fernando, OBE was Sri Lanka lawyer and judge. He was the 33rd Chief Justice of Ceylon and had served as Legal Draftsman of Ceylon.