A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) think tank yesterday urged the president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan to resign, stating that officials in those posts should step down when the administration that appointed them leaves office.
The KMT’s National Policy Foundation said that Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and Vice President Tsai Jeong-duen (蔡炯墩) should tender their resignations before president-elect William Lai (賴清德) takes office, in line with a precedent set by former Judicial Yuan president Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) and vice president Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽).
It cited Article 5 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文), which states that the tenures of grand justices serving as president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan are not automatically extended.
Photo: Yang Kuo-wen, Taipei Times
Former Judicial Yuan president Lai In-jaw (賴英照) resigned in 2010 amid a corruption scandal involving High Court judges, while his predecessor, Rai, stepped down when President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumed office in 2016, the foundation said.
Those resignations set precedents that a Judicial Yuan president should take responsibility for incidents under their watch and that they step down when a new administration starts, it said, adding that Hsu has been mired in controversy since his nomination.
During his tenure, not only has there been an increased volume of cases requiring legal action, but there have also been an increased number of judges who have committed suicide, it said.
The foundation said that many judicial rulings were insufficient for the crime they concerned, including cases involving sexual harassment and corruption, while many rulings exceeded the original parameters of the law.
Hsu should take responsibility for such failings under his watch, it said.
The foundation also said the Constitutional Court was “creating laws” by leading the Legislative Yuan to change laws.
The incoming administration of William Lai does not need to shoulder the cross of the Tsai’s administration and should find others it believes would do better as president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan, it said.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its