It's time for a Magna Carta for Taiwan

As an American attorney I am often asked by other foreigners; "what is the law here in Taiwan regarding x, y or z". My honest answer is; "as far as I can tell there is no law in Taiwan. If Taiwan claims to have a legal system, I have yet to see it in the seven years I have lived here."

I don't give that answer to be flippant, but because, in my analysis Taiwan has never come close to having a rule of law.

President-elect Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is in an excellent position to start the process of establishing such a rule of law. I realize he faces a host of pressures, problems and challenges, but I would urge him to make this one of his priorities.

As an attorney, he is aware of the central importance of a true rule of law. As one of the Kaohsiung Incident defense team, he saw firsthand the perversion of law, reduced to an empty charade, a whore of the ruling party. I have no doubt he was sickened by this. And I have great hope that he will act to give the rule of law the central and enduring place it deserves.

Many might protest that Taiwan does have a rule of law. We have laws. We have courts. We have lawyers. We have legal scholars, law schools and legal journals.

However, the reality is these things do not themselves make for a rule of law. Some of the most lawless, brutal tyrannies in history had all those things.

The rule of law, in its broadest sense, means that no person and no organization is above the law. It means one law for all: rich and poor, the powerful and the disenfranchised.

It means fundamental fairness. It means laws that are clear and uniformly enforced. It means a judiciary that is not riddled with corruption and incompetence. It means prosecutors with discretion who have the authority and the resources to aggressively fight crime.

It also means a private bar that is more concerned with justice and fair play than their financial bottom line.

The blunt reality in Taiwan is that these conditions have not been obtained. Privilege, connections, exemptions and outright corruption have all made the law into something merely to be manipulated or circumvented.

"The law" was nothing more than another tool to be used in the furtherance of the ruling party's ends.

Chen can do a couple of things early in his presidency to move Taiwan forwards. He can appoint persons who are truly committed to the rule of law to run the Ministry of Justice, the Judicial Yuan and the National Police Administration.

In the past posts such as the Ministry of Justice were handed out as a form of patronage; like candy or hong-bao to children. This needs to end. I hope and assume Chen will end such practices and make enlightened appointments to such positions.

The Magna Carta marked the birth of a true rule of law for the Anglo-American world. I hope that Chen's election will mark the birth of a true rule of law for our own country.

Brian Kennedy is a member of boards of Amnesty International Taiwan and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights.