Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) on Friday adjourned a contentious discussion among legislative caucuses over a bill for citizen participation in criminal court procedures, although the talks are to resume tomorrow.
At the time of adjournment, only 35 of 113 articles for the proposed lay judge system — which would place six lay judges alongside a panel of three official judges — were addressed, and only two were agreed upon.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) and New Power Party (NPP) caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said the bill, which would significantly affect the judicial process, should not be rushed during an extraordinary legislative session.
Screen grab from the Legislative Yuan Parliamentary TV Web site
However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said that “the time for reform has come,” and urged those involved to review the proposal item by item.
The meeting was rife with disagreements on terminology and the contents of the bill, as well as on the name of the proposed act.
Although the Judicial Yuan, which proposed the bill, has called it the “citizen participation in criminal trial procedures act,” the DPP caucus proposed naming it the “national judge act,” removing words, such as “participation,” that it says might not fit the final language of the bill.
The KMT caucus said the word “judge” should not be used in the name, as it might blur the distinction between judges and lay judges.
It also said the name should replace “national” with “citizen.”
The KMT, DPP and NPP caucuses agreed that 18-year-olds should be eligible to serve as lay judges, while the Judicial Yuan said that as many people at that age are still in school, there would be a higher percentage of them who would refuse to serve.
The Judicial Yuan also said that 18-year-olds might not be able to handle the psychological pressure of being a lay judge, and instead proposed 23 as the minimum age to be considered eligible.
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) said that a lay judge system and a jury system should be implemented simultaneously, with the lay judge system handling criminal cases with potential prison sentences of seven or more years, and the jury system addressing matters involving corruption, insurrection or obstruction of official duty.
Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lin Hui-huang (林輝煌) said that the TPP proposal was impractical and would require lay judges to learn two judicial systems.
Using sentences as the basis for which system would handle a case lacks a legal basis, he added.
DPP caucus Secretary-General Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) yesterday said that judicial reform has been delayed since 2012, and the DPP hopes to complete it during this extraordinary session.
The proposed lay judge system should be considered a priority, as limited resources cannot sustain the introduction of a lay judges and jury trial system simultaneously, he said.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
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