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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
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NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
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