Minister of Justice Yeh Chin-fong (
"She deserves the honor because she was single-handedly able to hold back the combined effort of other members of the legal community," said Sue Wang (
Much of the criticism of the minister came out of the National Judicial Reform Conference, held in July, which saw a split between ministry representatives and other participants of the conference, notably between members of the court system and lawyers.
While a majority of participants agreed about the need to change existing criminal justice procedures to create a so-called "adversarial" system such as that used in the US, the minister came out strongly against the change.
As one of five decision-makers at the conference, Yeh's opposition created a deadlock on many issues concerning changes to the criminal justice system.
The reform activists, who had very high expectations for change, said that Yeh's rigid stance had turned the conference into a fruitless exercise. Yeh was later dubbed the "no, no" minister by disappointed delegates.
The top ten survey, conducted by the Judicial Reform Foundation, contained opinions from two groups -- members of the general public, who made their choices based on media coverage of judicial events, and legal specialists such as lawyers and legal reporters.
The justice minister herself topped the list of judicial persons last year -- albeit not in the way she probably would have wanted.
Next to the minister on the list were the judges and the prosecutors reportedly involved in a recent insider-trading scandal.
A legislator disclosed in November last year that the judges and prosecutors in question had collectively invested in stocks of Taiwan Pineapple Corp (
The judicial officials involved are now being investigated by the Control Yuan, the island's watchdog organ on public officials.
Independent legislator Wu Tse-yuan (
Wu, who was released on medical grounds in March 1998, was elected to the legislature in December of the same year. The legislature appointed Wu as one of representatives to the National Judicial Reform Conference last year. The appointment, however, was eventually rejected by organizers of the conference who believed that including someone as controversial as Wu might have turned the conference into a farce.
The survey also recorded the top 10 legal news events of 1999.
The July conference was given first place for its significance to the island's judicial reform. Other events include the Taiwan Pineapple scandal, driving under the influence becoming an indictable crime, disclosure of the court records of 204 elected representatives and implementation of a restraining order in cases of domestic violence.
TWEET CONFIRMED: The US’ Morgan Ortagus backed up Taiwan, saying China only admitted that human-to-human transmission was possible as late as Jan. 20 Taiwan warned the WHO and China about possible human-to-human transmission of the new coronavirus at the end of last year, but the global health body did not make it public, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Department of International Organizations Director-General Bob Chen (陳龍錦) made the remark at a news briefing in Taipei, when asked about statements made by US Department of State spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. “Dec. 31— that’s the same day Taiwan first tried to warn WHO of human-human transmission. Chinese authorities meanwhile silenced doctors and refused to admit human-human transmission until Jan. 20, with catastrophic consequences,” Ortagus wrote on
ON THE LOOKOUT: A Lockheed EP-3 reconnaissance plane was yesterday seen flying southwest of Kaohsiung, according to Twitter account ‘Aircraft Spots’ A Twitter account that tracks military aircraft movements has indicated an increase in US military activity near Taiwan, coinciding with an increase in Chinese military activity in the area. Planes from the US Seventh Fleet have been sighted frequently above the South China Sea in the past several days, and a US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane was seen flying close to Taiwanese airspace southwest of Kaohsiung yesterday, according to posts by the Twitter account Aircraft Spots. The EP-3 was seen circling above the same area, Aircraft Spots said, adding that other planes from the fleet were seen in the past few days
A Taipei resident who had breached his home quarantine order was found on Tuesday night in an Internet cafe and fined NT$1 million (US$32,976), Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) said yesterday, as the Taipei City Government announced a short-term COVID-19 relief plan. Huang on Tuesday afternoon publicized the name of the man, Chen Tse (陳冊), who on Saturday last week returned from Beijing and was ordered to undergo 14-day home quarantine. However, city monitoring officials were unable to contact him by mobile phone or at his home. Chen was found by police at an Internet cafe on Nanyang Street, Huang said
ACCLIMATION: Chen Shih-chung said that only ‘soft’ policies have been carried out so far, but ‘hard’ measures would be implemented if the coronavirus situation worsens The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday recommended that indoor events of more than 100 people and outdoor events with more than 500 people should be canceled, as 19 new imported cases of COVID-19 were announced, bringing the total number in Taiwan to 235. “The center recommends that from now, indoor events of more than 100 people and outdoor events with more than 500 people should be suspended to reduce the risk of COVID-19 community transmission,” said Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), deputy head of the center. Event organizers should refer to six indicators listed in the response guidelines
RSS