The Executive Yuan is to request the legislature to reconsider amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) after it obtains approval from President William Lai (賴清德), Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said today.
The amendments passed last month with votes from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) after hours of brawls between lawmakers from the opposition and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act require 10 judges to attend court sessions and nine judges to agree before legislation can be declared unconstitutional.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
The amendments would allow the legislature to override the judiciary, setting an “unreasonable threshold” that would disrupt the operation of the Constitutional Court, which would not be in line with the Grand Justices’ obligation, Lee cited Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying.
This could affect the public's right to seek remedies or to resolve constitutional disputes, endangering the constitutional order, Cho added.
Also, amendments to Article 4 of the act would not help to ensure the stable operation of the Constitutional Court as it does not set a legal time limit for the legislature to approve the nomination of Grand Justices by the president, said Cho.
Amendments to Article 95 of the act would prevent the incumbent Grand Justices from exercising their constitutional duties, paralyzing the Constitutional Court, as there is no transitional provision.
The Executive Yuan’s request to reconsider the amendments would delay the law’s coming into effect and would test the unity of the KMT and the TPP as the former does not have a majority by itself in the legislature, DPP Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said.
A constitutional interpretation would be sought if the legislature votes down the motion to reconsider the bill, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
Meanwhile, Lee said the Cabinet had not received any official notice of two other sets of amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) that were also approved by KMT and TPP lawmakers last month.
Those amendments would tighten the requirements for petitions used to initiate a recall of an elected official and reallocate more funding from the central government to local governments — regulations that the Cabinet has said it would seek to have rejected.
Lee said if the amendments are to be sent to the Executive Yuan on the last working day before the Lunar New Year, the Executive Yuan would have to decide whether to request the legislature to reconsider the bills in ten days.
This would mean the Executive Yuan would have to make a request by Feb. 2, she said.
If the Executive Yuan is to make a request during the Lunar New Year, the legislature would have to handle it within 15 days, she said, adding that the motion would be considered passed otherwise.
If the lawmakers vote down the motion, the Executive Yuan would discuss further actions, Minister without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕) said.
The president would have ten days to promulgate the law which would not come into effect immediately after the legislature votes down the motion, Lin said.
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