President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that screening of candidates for four seats on the Council of Grand Justices should be fast-tracked to ensure the court’s normal operations.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of a seven-member panel formed earlier this week to screen candidates for the constitutional court bench, Ma said a short list of candidates should be finalized as soon as possible so that the Legislative Yuan can vote on it during the current session.
TERMS FINISHED
The terms of four of the 15 incumbent grand justices — Hsu Pi-hu (徐璧湖) Lin Tzu-yi (林子儀), Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力) and Hsu Yu-hsiu (許玉秀) — will end on Sept. 30, and according to the Additional Articles of the Constitution, the president must nominate and appoint, with the consent of the legislature, four new justices to fill the positions.
Aiming to have the new -justices take the bench on Oct. 1 as required by existing regulations, the president wants the legislature to deal with nominations before it goes into summer recess at the end of May.
Grand justices are authorized to interpret the Constitution and unify the interpretation of laws and ordinances.
CRUCIAL ROLE
Ma said the role of grand justices is even more crucial in today’s judicial climate, where 76 percent of cases involving constitutional and legal interpretations are related to the public’s rights and interests.
OPEN PROCESS
Although haste was the theme in his address, Ma still asked members of the special panel to screen nominees based on a process that is open, fair and just.
Ma has named Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) and six legal experts to staff the panel. Siew serves as the panel’s convener, while two former Judicial Yuan presidents, Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生) and Lai Ing-jaw (賴英照), will be its deputy conveners.
The four other members include former Judicial Yuan vice president Hsieh Tsai-chuan (謝在全) and three former justices — Wu Keng (吳庚), Wang Tze-chien (王澤鑑) and Wang Ho-hsiung (王和雄).
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
RSS