Executive Yuan Minister Chen Chien-min (
Article 81 of the Constitution reads as follows: "Judges should hold office for life. No judge shall be removed from office unless he has been found guilty of a criminal offense or subjected to disciplinary measure or declared to be under interdiction. No judge shall, except in accordance with law, be suspended or transferred or have his salary reduced."
However, under the prolonged political rule and monopolization of power by the KMT, the significance underlying the constitutional guarantee of judges' life-long tenure has been long overlooked. In fact, the office of "judge" has long been seen by many as a stepping stone into a political career. Judges who are interested in becoming politicians keep their eyes open for "golden opportunities" to curry favor with those in power, even as they sit in their chambers.
From the standpoint of a constitutional separation of power between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, this type of behavior needs to be corrected. Some judges' fascination with a career in politics is seemingly more important than their work in the judiciary. This explains their inability to shirk political interference.
Government administrators who once served as judges have abandoned their supposedly "beloved" judicial offices without looking back when faced with calls by those in power. Now that the KMT has been defeated in the election, their passion for "judicial reform" has suddenly been revived.
This change of attitude is simply too abrupt and the judiciary has good reasons to take a cautious stance so that government administrators who have become jobless as a result of the KMT's defeat do not treat the judiciary as a bomb shelter against political storms. They should not treat positions within the judiciary as a political panacea.
Perhaps the rotation of political parties could bring about a new beginning for the judiciary and help it establish an impartial image. This is the only way that judges and prosecutors can learn to appreciate the significance of a life-tenure system under which they have no need to conform with the values of political power.
Both Shou Chi-yang (
Actually, severing the umbilical cord between law and politics isn't all that difficult. Former commissioner of the Provincial Council Hsieh Chin-ting (
The judicial system has long-striven for progress in terms of separating judicial and political power. Hopefully, the judiciary will never ever again take the back road.
The times are changing, the tide is changing as well and beliefs, therefore, must also change. Of course, judges can still choose to become politicians. However, they must be held responsible for their choices.
Chang Sheng-hsin is a judge in the Taichung district court.
A provisional arrangement between China and the Philippines, intended to smooth their troubles in the South China Sea, has quickly unraveled. Now more than ever, Manila and the international community need to call Beijing’s “gray zone” activities in the contested waters what they are: Illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive. It would bring further transparency to a situation that has the potential to turn into a major global flashpoint. The moniker, known as ICAD, was first coined by a Philippine general. Gray zone activities refer to provocative actions that are not so egregious they would demand a warlike response, but neither are
When it comes to national security and foreign affairs, President William Lai (賴清德) has said he wants to maintain the same policies as his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). Unfortunately, he does not find himself in the same geopolitical circumstances as Tsai during her presidency. The loss of a legislative majority aside, the regional geopolitical situation is in a continuous state of flux. Regardless of the perception of the binary nature of the forces that conspire against or with Taiwan — the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the US — the actual situation is far more complex, as encapsulated by many
US President Joe Biden’s historic decision on July 21 to take his name out of the running for a second term has upended expectations for this year’s presidential election in the US. A listlessness regarding a rematch of the same two candidates from four years ago has transformed into an explosion of excitement around US Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee. Within days and even hours, record-breaking donations flowed into the Harris campaign’s coffers, while memes about coconuts and Harris being “brat” flooded social media. What seemed to be an uphill battle for Democrats less than two weeks
Taiwan has been the focus of international media after former US president Donald Trump said the nation should pay the US for defense. Former Trump administration officials such as Elbridge Colby and Robert O’Brien believe Taiwan should boost defense spending to demonstrate its willingness to resist China. However, a narrow focus on spending distracts from more urgent issues the nation needs to address, which is making civil society more resilient in the face of external hostilities. President William Lai (賴清德) last month announced the establishment of the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee to boost civil society’s resilience, including building up food