The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a new bill for a lay judge system, to take effect in 2023, as part of its judicial reform efforts.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who signed off on the bill, hailed it as a historic step.
The bill largely mirrors one submitted by the Judicial Yuan to a previous legislative session, with a handful of adjustments, Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) told a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The scope of cases in which lay judges, who the bill refers to as “citizen judges,” can take part has been reduced from cases that warrant a prison sentence of at least seven years to ones that could impose a 10-year term.
The original draft would have meant that the number of cases that lay judges could review would be about 1,200 per year, which would be too many when testing a new system, Lo said.
Although the current version lowers that number to between 500 and 600, the Executive Yuan has asked the Judicial Yuan and Legislative Yuan to consider further limiting the scope of cases amid concern the new system would put a strain on the judiciary, he said.
The two branches could further limit the nature of cases and charges that could be handled by lay judges, but gradually expand the scope after the system has been running smoothly for a period of time, he said.
The new bill retains the proposal that lay judges be allowed to review cases of deliberate homicide, and while the previous version did not stipulate a starting date, the new version sets a date of Jan 1, 2023.
There are some differences between the Judicial Yuan’s and Executive Yuan’s proposals.
The Judicial Yuan’s draft has an article that evidence must be disclosed to defendants in three stages, while the Executive Yuan’s proposes that all evidence be disclosed to defendants, plaintiffs and victims at once.
The two versions would be presented side-by-side for lawmakers to consider during legislative reviews, Lo said.
Under the bill, Republic of China nationals who are at least 23 years old and have resided in the jurisdiction of their district courts for at least four months would be obligated to serve at some point as lay judges or backups.
They would serve alongside three career judges and five other lay judges, with the court president acting as the presiding judge, the Executive Yuan bill states.
A district court should inform a local government of the number of lay judges it needs for the upcoming year before Sept. 1, and local governments would then be required to provide a roster of lay judges, selected by a lottery draw, and provide the roster to the local courts within a month.
People who are assigned to serve as lay judges for a certain hearing would be informed at least 30 days prior to the date of the hearing, the bill states.
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