It heard cases of first instance and appeals from the District and Magisrates Courts as well as certain tribunals.The Supreme Court was established in 1844 after Hong Kong became a British Crown colony under the Treaty of Nanjing.The first sitting of the court was on 1 October 1844 presided over by the first Chief Justice, John Walter Hulme.In the 1910s and 1920s, a Shanghai judge would regularly travel to Hong Kong to sit on the Full Court.[6] A full history of the Supreme Court up to the early 20th Century is in James William Norton-Kyshe's:
Former French Mission Building, used by the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1983 and later by the Court of Final Appeal from 1997 to 2015.