More than 300 lawyers yesterday marched in Taipei to protest bills to amend the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法).
Under the bills proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), the Constitutional Court Procedure Act would be changed to specify that the total number of incumbent Constitutional Court justices is 15, while a two-thirds majority would be needed to issue a ruling.
Currently a simple majority is needed for the Constitutional Court to pass a judgement, but under the bills, 10 justices would need to agree in each case. If the legislature does not ratify judicial nominees, there would not be enough justices to oversee a case.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
A group of 153 lawyers who organized the march said the bills would make it incredibly difficult for justices to rule on cases, which would cripple the court’s operations and restrict the public’s right to demand constitutional interpretations.
Cognito Law Office attorney Jacob Lin (林俊宏) said that more than 95 percent of the petitions for constitutional rulings concerned human rights cases.
Demonstrators urged the legislature to uphold democracy and the rule of law, while calling for heightened public awareness of the severity of the draft amendments and the importance of the Constitutional Court, Lin said.
The lawyers marched while wearing their judicial robes to show their determination to safeguard the constitutional system, he said.
Former justice Huang Hung-hsia (黃虹霞), who was appointed during the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), also attended the march.
Huang said it would be “unconstitutional” if the bills passed, as they raise the threshold for passing a constitutional ruling and damage social justice.
The draft amendments would groundlessly redefine the total number of incumbent grand justices as stipulated in the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文), marchers said.
If passed, the Constitutional Court would have to cease operations whenever there are an insufficient number of justices, they added.
The Constitutional Court is the last line of defense for the nation’s constitutional order and the ultimate judicial mechanism to ensure the protection of human rights and dignity, they said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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