Judicial Yuan officials yesterday dismissed accusations made by National Assembly deputies that the grand justices made "self-serving" interpretations of the Constitution.
They also expressed concern about the Assembly's proposal to abolish the Council of Grand Justices, warning that the passage of such an amendment would harm Taiwan's constitutional system.
The same Assembly deputies, whose proposal to abolish the Council passed committee review on Sunday, yesterday introduced another proposed amendment stating that the Council should remain in place, but that their life-long stipend guarantees should be cancelled.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Speaking at a news conference yesterday, Judicial Yuan president Weng Yueh-sheng (
A group of Assembly deputies, including the party whips of the KMT and DPP, charged the Council of Grand Justices of "self-fattening" by making legal interpretations that entitled themselves to salaries for life, despite a system of limited terms for grand justices.
Such stipend privileges for grand justices were added into the organizational rules of the Judicial Yuan in 1992. The grand justices' stipend privileges were therefore passed by the legislature, not the Council itself, Weng said.
"No single one out of over 500 interpretations issued by the Council has ever interpreted the privileges or security of the grand justices. As for Interpretation No.396, cited by the Assembly deputies ? it has nothing to do with self-fattening," Weng said.
"[Grand justices' privileges] are a matter of governmental policy, not the intentions of the Council," Weng said. "In developed countries, the only fears over judicial officials' security is whether it is sufficient. The better the security, the more officials can perform their duties without misgivings or interference."
He also denied that the Council had pressured the legislature into making the law.
"It's impossible. How could the Council possibly have had the power to impose pressure on the legislature?" Weng said.
However, Weng's words were weighed against speculation by some that the Judicial Yuan was fighting back against the National Assembly.
"We are not criticizing [the Assembly deputies], only considering that such Constitutional amendments need to be clarified," he said.
Weng stressed that the current legal system was revisable, but that any reform requires a comprehensive plan. The current judicial system is not able to undertake the task of interpreting the Constitution, he said, and therefore the abolishment of the Council of Grand Justices would bring about a legal crisis and harm the public interest.
Grand Justice Chen Chi-nan (
"Should we accept such personal attacks?"Chen said.
On Sunday, Assembly deputies from the KMT and DPP reached a consensus to remove the life stipend guarantees of the grand justices, rather than to abolish the Council altogether as they had originally planned. In fact, the passage of the amendment to abolish the Council during Sunday's committee review session was only been meant to express deputies' discontent with the grand justices and is unlikely to pass second and third readings.
Many deputies were furious after the Council ruled in March that a set of amendments passed last year -- including one that extended the current Assembly's term by two years -- was invalid because it broke procedural rules.
Alex Tsai (
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS