The legislature is to vote tomorrow on a motion to reconsider the amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), a week after the Executive Yuan submitted a formal request to the legislature to reassess the amendment, whose third reading was passed on Dec. 20.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said it would not invite Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) to give a report on the law to the legislature, as both the ruling and opposition party caucuses met this afternoon to discuss the issue.
The amendment is a political maneuver, Cho said today.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
By strictly regulating the number of grand justices on the Constitutional Court, the court would be paralyzed and unable to rule on constitutional matters, Cho said.
This would be the greatest harm done to the Constitution in history, he added.
The Executive Yuan could not accept this, he said, adding that he hopes that legislators would review the bill again and support the motion to reconsider it.
When submitting a request to President William Lai (賴清德) about requesting a new vote, the Executive Yuan’s goal was not to create opposition, but to allow legislators to discuss the matter carefully, Cho said.
Cho called on legislators to support the motion, and said that if they insist on implementing the new amendments, they would undermine the Constitution and deprive citizens of the right to seek constitutional redress.
Even if the motion fails, there is still some room for discussion on how to interpret the amendments, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕) said.
Lin mentioned a judicial remedy known as the “preventive relief,” which serves as a legal tool to protect people’s rights before they are actually violated, may be proposed, but said it would be up to the Grand Justices to decide if they accept it.
The motion cannot be voted on without discussion, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said.
The bill is important and could paralyze the judicial system, DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said in a news conference at the Legislative Yuan today, questioning why the KMT passed it without discussion.
Wu also questioned the role of Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), saying that he failed to maintain neutrality in this debate by allowing the KMT to forego discussions.
The legislative and executive branches of governments should be responsible and engage in dialogue, Wu added.
Meanwhile, 90 legal experts issued a joint statement today, saying that the amendment undermines the separation of powers and hinders the ability of citizens to seek redress when their rights are infringed.
The experts expressed concern regarding the future of Taiwan’s constitutional democracy and called for legislators to return the law to its original state.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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