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Council losing half of justices

"If President Chen doesn't nominate grand justices soon, then there will only be seven grand justices left after September, which may hamper the operations of the Judicial Yuan."

Huang Hsiu-duan, alliance spokesman

A private group of lawyers and rights activists yesterday called on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to present his list of nominees for grand justices soon for public scrutiny and legislative approval, as more than half of the council's seats will be empty by September.

With the current legislative session ending this month and the next session not scheduled to begin until September, the group expressed concern that there might not be enough time for legislators to review and approve new members of the Council of Grand Justices.

"If President Chen doesn't nominate grand justices soon, then there will only be seven grand justices left after September, which may hamper the operations of the Judicial Yuan," said Huang Hsiu-duan (黃秀端), a spokesman for the alliance, which was established in 2003 to screen nominees for grand justices.

Two of the grand justices have resigned, while the term of another six will expire by September.

Huang said that Chen actually presented a list of eight nominees for grand justices four years ago -- long before the positions needed to be filled.

However, the public was pre-occupied with the bitterly contested party primaries for the year-end legislative elections and the controversy surrounding the renaming of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to National Taiwan Democracy Hall and "simply has forgotten about the matter," she said.

Huang added that the group would restart its screening and assessment mechanism for evaluating nominees for grand justices soon.

The alliance is composed of the Taipei Society, Taiwan Law Society, Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Taiwan Bar Association, Taipei Bar Association and the Judicial Reform Foundation.

Meanwhile, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday confirmed that Chen was considering new personnel to fill the eight grand justices seats.

Lu made the remarks on the sidelines of a seminar on gender education at Shih Hsin University.

Asked about reports that the president is planning to nominate former vice premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as a grand justice, Lu did not answer directly when asked if Tsai, who holds a doctoral degree in law and has served as Mainland Affairs Council chairwoman from 2000 to 2004, was fit to serve as a grand justice, but said that "women can serve as presidents, let alone as grand justices."

Among the seats on the Council of Grand Justices that Chen nominated in 2003, eight of them, including the president and the vice president of the Judicial Yuan, are for four-year terms, while the remainder are for eight-year terms.
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