Following the controversial passage of amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party legislators, it has been said that President William Lai (賴清德) could apply Article 37 of the Constitution and simply not promulgate the amendments, while the premier could refuse to countersign them into law.
Unfortunately, presidential promulgation and the premier’s countersignature are legal duties, which neither has the power to refuse. Such a refusal would only add to the chaos, break with constitutional procedure and bring the nation closer to a constitutional crisis. This stuff is constitutional law and governance 101.
However, there are three safeguards available to address the problematic new laws.
First, according to Article 3, Section 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution, if the Executive Yuan deems a bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, it has the option, with the approval of the president and within 10 days of the bill’s submission to the Executive Yuan, to request the Legislative Yuan to reconsider the bill. However, if the legislature upholds it, the premier must immediately accept the bill.
Second, according to Articles 42 and 43 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act, the Constitutional Court has the power to render a preliminary injunction on the problematic law, and can give interested persons the opportunity to state opinions or conduct the necessary investigations on their own.
Third, according to Articles 47 and 49 of the same law, should the president, any of the five branches of government or more than a quarter of legislators believe that a law is in contravention of the Constitution, they can lodge a petition with the Constitutional Court for a judgement declaring the impugned law unconstitutional.
Even though the new amendment to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act stipulates that the number of justices should not be less than 10, once this provision has been suspended and has yet to come into effect, the decision would still be based on the existing majority — the current total of eight justices — not the amended statutory number of 15.
The court therefore still needs to rule on whether the new amendment is constitutional. Legislators often make amendments to the law that are subsequently deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and declared void. It is only a matter of time until such legislators would come up against a recall motion.
Chuang Sheng-rong is a lawyer.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS