On July 1, 1997 the Court of Final Appeal was established as the appellate court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Before 1997, the final appellate court of Hong Kong as a British colony was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.

Between 1997 and 2015, the Court of Final Appeal was located in the building known as the former French Mission Building at 1 Battery Path, Hong Kong.

This building is a declared monument. It was acquired and substantially rebuilt in 1917 by the French Society of Foreign Missions, a Catholic missionary society from France. Apart from certain interruptions during the Second World War, it was used by that Society. After 1997, the chapel in the building became the court room of the Court of Final Appeal.

In 1953, the Society sold it back to the Hong Kong Government. Until 1997, it had been used during certain periods for various public purposes, including at the District Court and the Supreme Court (known after 1997 as the High Court).

In 2015, the Court of Final Appeal was relocated to the Court of Final Appeal Building at 8 Jackson Road, Hong Kong. This building is also known as the old Supreme Court Building as it had housed the former Supreme Court (1912-1983). It also housed the Legislative Council (1985-2011).

As Chief Justice, Mr Li had stated: “I for one shall be nostalgic for the French Mission Building where the Court spent its formative years and which holds so many memories of the challenges during my tenure. But it will be time to move on.” [See CJ Li’s Speech at the Opening of the Legal Year on 11 January 2010.]

This embroidered image of the Court of Final Appeal in the French Mission Building was presented to Chief Justice Li by the Correctional Services Department in 2008. It is understood that it is the handicraft work of persons in custody.