Judicial watchdog groups yesterday panned the nomination process for the Council of Grand Justices as “severely flawed” and not rigorous enough, calling on the four grand justice candidates to decline their nominations.
The nominees — Chen Be-yue (陳碧玉), Huang Hsi-chun (黃璽君), Lo Chang-fa (羅昌發) and Tang Te-tsung (湯德宗) — were nominated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) late last month to replace the four incumbent grand justices, whose terms are due to expire at the end of September.
Following the sudden change of grand justice nominee Supreme Court Judge Shao Yen-ling (邵燕玲), who declined Ma’s nomination after a media uproar over her role in a controversial child molestation ruling, Chen also found herself at the center of controversy.
Chen, head of the Judicial Personnel Study Center, once held a US green card during her stint as a Supreme Court judge. Lo, a chair professor at National Taiwan University, at one time had permanent residency in Canada.
“The nominations have betrayed the lack of seriousness that Ma has shown toward the judicial system and judicial reform,” said Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), an associate professor of law at National Taiwan University that is a part of the non-profit Taiwan Democracy Watch.
An umbrella organization of seven judicial groups, including the Taiwan Bar Association, has said that it would boycott offering further views on the nominations in a sign of protest.
Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源), a research fellow at Academia Sinica that spoke for the umbrella group, said that this would be the first year since 2003 that judicial watchdogs have refused to issue an opinion on the Grand Justice nominations.
“This boycott represents our opinion on the current candidates,” he said, adding that Ma needed to “seriously consider” reopening the entire nomination process.
“It will return some of the respect to the Grand Justice position,” he said.
The list of the four grand justices nominees was sent to the legislature on Wednesday for approval.
A cross-party negotiation initially slated to take place yestersday to discuss the review procedures has been postponed to Monday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS