Constitution deserves a closer look

According to Additional Article 3 of the Constitution, the premier shall be appointed by the president without the consent of the legislature. Since the president is directly elected by the voters of Taiwan and needs to be responsible for all the people and Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), as the chief-of-staff of the president, is directly appointed by Chen, how can the premier stay in his post while the president steps down?

To be more specific, if the opposition legislators chose to recall Chen to show their distrust of him, they would also be showing their distrust of the premier, which certainly must lead to an impeachment of the premier and a legislative election.

In such a situation, the president can therefore dissolve the legislature under the Additional Article 2 of the Constitution, forcing the opposition legislators to request an interpretation by the grand justices as to whether distrust of the president equals distrust of the premier.

The interpretation which the legislator's would wish for, however, that distrust of the president does not equal distrust of the premier, would not materialize, since it would make no sense. As a result, the KMT would suffer badly if the president actually chose to dissolve the legislature.

Some so-called senior constitutional experts in Taiwan have stressed that the president can be recalled if the majority in the legislature wishes it. Is this really true? Perhaps they should take advice from our young constitutional experts.

Lee Hong-hsi is a law professor at National Taiwan University.

Translated by Eddy Chang