Noel Power

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Sir Noel Plunkett Power, GBS (4 December 1929 – 19 November 2009), was a prominent judge in Hong Kong and Brunei. He served as Acting Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Supreme Court from 1996 to 1997 and later as Vice-President of the Court of Appeal. After Hong Kong’s handover in 1997, he became a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal and continued to sit there while also serving in the Court of Appeal. In 2007 he moved to Brunei, where he became President of the Brunei Court of Appeal, a post he held until his death in 2009.

Born in Brisbane, Australia, Power came from an Irish-descendant family. He studied at Downlands College and the University of Queensland, earning a BA and LL.B. He began his legal career as a barrister in Australia in 1955, and in 1965 moved to Hong Kong to become a magistrate in the Lands Tribunal. He was promoted to President of the Lands Tribunal in 1976, then to a puisne judge of the Supreme Court in 1979. He chaired the Broadcasting Review Board in the mid-1980s, which led to the creation of the Broadcasting Authority in 1987. He joined the Court of Appeal in 1987 and became Vice-President in 1993.

Power retired from the Court of Appeal in 1999 but remained a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal. He played a key role in the 2005 Nina Wang inheritance case, which ultimately favored Nina Wang. He was knighted in 1999 and received the Gold Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong government the same year. In 2000 he chaired an independent inquiry into the University of Hong Kong’s public opinion poll scandal.

Power had long ties to Brunei, first serving as a visiting judge from the 1980s. He became a Brunei judge in 2003 and was appointed President of Brunei’s Court of Appeal in 2007. He died of a heart attack on 19 November 2009 at Jerudong Park Medical Centre, Brunei, while still in office.

He was married to Irma Maroya, a Croatian, since 1965, and they had two sons and a daughter. His hobbies included travel, reading, cooking, and wine tasting, and he played a leading role in the Hong Kong wine community, including helping establish the Wines of the Pacific Rim Fair in 1988.