If we examine the experiences of various modern countries, we will see that only a few countries lack substantive laws. Substantive values, especially those related to human rights, are also sufficiently evident in the legal framework of almost all modern countries. The ROC Constitution is one such example. Therefore, the main reason for the continuing mistreatment of the underprivileged is possibly the lack of legal remedies and reliefs. This means it takes a lot more than a public statement on the sanctity of human rights to improve human rights conditions. A country must work to ensure the protection of human rights through a variety of systematic enforcement measures.
People are less likely to be forced to take the matter into their own hands if their are adequate legal remedies and reliefs. Taiwan's past human rights record indicates that it is relatively weak in terms of offering the needed legal reliefs and remedies. As a result, people are more likely to take matters into their own hands, the way Tseng did.
This weakness is one of the after-effects of Taiwan's past authoritarian rule. At first, the authoritarian administration violently and openly suppressed people's move to deal with problems themselves, that is by non-violent civil disobedience. In time, after making a minimal effort to improve remedies and reliefs, our previous government began to implement milder forms of suppression against civil disobedience and eventually turned a blind eye to it. The new Chen administration has finally started to pay more serious attention to such civil disobedience.
Labor rights and social rights eventually have to rely on a fully developed, rather than incomplete, social security or welfare system as a substitute for legal relief and remedies. Otherwise, President Chen is likely to come to the realization that he has an endless number of pardons to sign, as he boasts about leading Taiwan into the WTO during his presidency. Even though workers are no longer being placed behind bars for fighting for their rights, politicians who go for breakfast meetings with capitalists should not forget that chilly street corners where demonstrations take place may look a lot like prison cells to the workers.
Yen Chueh-an is an associate professor of law at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Gatian Wang
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