Former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模) urged the government to initiate reforms to the justice system by abolishing the Judicial Yuan and bolstering lower courts by assigning more judges to district level courts.
He made the remarks at a seminar focused on “new concepts for judicial reform” organized by the Taiwan Law and Policy Research Foundation.
Cheng, chairman of the foundation, said that the Judicial Yuan must be abolished as a priority, as its role — of overseeing the entire courts system and judiciary officials — is superseded by the agency immediately below it, the Supreme Court.
“It is difficult for foreigners to fathom that our nation’s Supreme Court is under the jurisdiction of the Judicial Yuan. If it is called the Supreme Court, then why is there another judicial body above it?” Cheng said.
Following the transfer of power on May 20, Democratic Progressive Party and New Power Party lawmakers have been demanding the resignation of Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) and his deputy Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽), but they have resisted calls and have not resigned so new appointments could be made by the government.
Cheng also recommended that the government create a “pyramid structure” for the justice system, with the base being the local lower district courts.
Cheng said that doing away with the Judicial Yuan would free more resources and more judges could be assigned to lower courts, giving them the ability to handle the bulk of people’s judiciary needs and clear a backlog of lawsuits.
“Judicial reform is a difficult task. Most previous government leaders and heads of the judiciary did not want to open up this ‘Pandora’s box,’ so reform has been very slow going. Any work done only scratched the surface, with very little real change made to the system,” Cheng said.
Cheng said that surveys showed that 84 percent of people do not trust judges and 76 percent of people do not trust prosecutors, which he said indicated that only 20 to 30 percent of the public have faith in the nation’s justice system.
He blamed Taiwan’s examination culture for this, saying that most judiciary officials and judges entered the system by passing an entrance examination that mandates years of arduous studying at cram schools, which made them out of touch with society, because they might not have workplace experience or much experience in the outside world.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS