The Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that it is planning to establish an international affairs department to meet the demand created by an increasing number of cases involving international law.
"The ministry is the top government office which is in charge of all kinds of legal affairs. It is our job to associate with other government offices when it comes to legal affairs," said Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
"In addition, since Taiwan joined the WTO last year, international legal cases will be increasing, so there is also a need for us to have a new department to deal with it," he said.
To successfully establish the new department, the ministry will have to come up with a proposal to amend the Organic Law of the Ministry of Justice Organization (
"It will be a long process, but we must do it anyway," said Chen.
He did not give a time frame for the completion of the plan.
In the meantime, he said, the ministry is also planning to hire foreign lawyers to work for the new department as well.
"They will have the title `in-house counselor,'" said Chen. "They will share their experiences with our own lawyers, prosecutors and judges. In the meantime, we can share our experiences with them."
The minister said that before the new department is formally established, the ministry will select appropriately qualified staff and put them to work in a preparatory temporary office at the ministry.
He added that by "appropriately qualified staff," he meant, "highly-trained lawyers who are fluent in English."
"Our government is trying very hard to improve the people of Taiwan's English-language ability. As a result, I hope that shortly it will not be difficult for us to find good lawyers, prosecutors and judges who can also speak beautiful English," he said.
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