Print

Mail

wiki links

Judicial reform `not dead'

The President of the Judicial Yuan, Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生), has denied a press report which quoted him as saying, "reform has failed," and said yesterday that legal reform is continuing.

The judicial head was addressing the media after learning that the Independence Evening Post (自立晚報) had run a front-page report with a headline saying that he had proclaimed legal reform to have failed.

Saying that the report was "greatly mistaken," Weng said that reform continued to move ahead and that he would not give up halfway.

"Reform has moved forward step by step. There might be areas which the court system alone cannot achieve and for which we rely on other government branches for help. But there is no doubt that we are committed to reform," Weng said.

The disputed report covered a speech Weng delivered at a meeting with court officials yesterday, in which he talked about key elements needed for the success of legal reforms.

Weng said he had mentioned in his speech that past efforts to push for reform had failed because public opinion was not taken seriously. But, he said, this was not the case with the current reform effort.

Speaking to the heads of courts nationwide, Weng had said it was imperative to bear in mind the public perception of justice while proceeding with reform.

The current round of reform has been underway since 1999 and aims to make the judiciary more efficient, to improve the quality of judgments and to bolster the credibility of judges.

Such reforms are seen as crucial to the long-term aim of turning the current inquisitorial judicial system into an Anglo-American style adversarial system.

The Judges Association recently wrote to Weng on the subject of judicial reform. Among other things, the reform-minded judges reminded the judicial head that the success of the current reforms would depend to a great extent upon whether all members of the judicial system shared reformist values.

Weng admitted yesterday that there are generation gaps in the judicial community, which comprises young, middle-aged, and elderly judges. He said he was aware of discord between the different generations and he considers the minimization of disagreements and the development of common values of reform to be a top priority.
This story has been viewed 1858 times.