An amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) approved by the Judicial Yuan could infringe on the right to a fair trial, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said at a news conference at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
The amendment — which was submitted to lawmakers by the Executive Yuan in March — would limit Taiwan High Court and Supreme Court reviews of an appeal to issues of law, effectively making district court judges the sole arbiters of the facts in criminal cases.
This proposed system, dubbed “the pyramid model of litigation” by officials, was written to increase lower courts’ access to judicial resources, the Judicial Yuan wrote in the statement of purpose for the bill.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
DPP Legislator Kao Chia-yu (高嘉瑜) said that the amendment amounts to a bid to give the courts greater powers to dismiss appeals when they should be hearing more cases.
“The Supreme Court rejected 84 to 89 percent of appeals brought before it between 2016 and 2020,” Kao said. “Switching to an approval-based appeal system would make it even harder for defendants seeking retrials.”
The nation’s legal system is rife with allegations of wrongful convictions and the proposed amendment would further erode public confidence in the nation’s judges, DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) said.
Efforts to reduce the workload of judges must not come at the expense of due process, which should have been the highest directive for any legal reform planned by the Judicial Yuan, Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said.
“An approval-based system for hearing appeals would deprive the people of the right to a fair trial,” Tsai said. “This so-called reform is unfair to the public and reflects the fact that the Judicial Yuan has totally misplaced its priorities.”
In response, Ministry of Justice official Lee Ssu-ta (李思達) told a news conference that the ministry is not prepared to comment on the bill, as officials are still studying the significant changes to criminal law being proposed.
The ministry agrees that any changes to the law must not diminish the right to a fair trial and that amendments to the law must be made only after thorough consultation with the public and achieving social consensus, he said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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