More than 500 justices on Tuesday demanded that the chief justice of the Supreme Court be elected by lower-court justices as a means of reforming the judicial system, following widespread public outrage over recent verdicts rendered by the court.
Three Taipei District Court justices — Lin Meng-huang (林孟皇), Wu Chiu-hung (吳秋宏) and Yang Kun-chiao (楊坤樵) — held a press conference to announce a campaign to reform the system for appointing the Supreme Court president, who has been roundly criticized for a number of recent rulings.
In one of these cases, Lin said, Supreme Court justices ruled that the lower courts should investigate to see if a child who was allegedly a victim of sexual assault had “consented” to the act. The ruling triggered a “white rose” protest movement against the justices.
Photo: CNA
These types of inept rulings have sparked widespread criticism that the country’s Supreme Court justices are completely out of touch with today’s reality, said the three lower court judges, who vowed to “take away the dinosaurs’ warm beds.”
They said they represent the Action Alliance of Justices to Elect the Supreme Court Chief Justice, which they said has received signatures of support from 518 of the nation’s 1,888 justices.
The alliance’s foremost demand is the election of the Supreme Court chief justice, because “grassroot-level justices know who is suitable for the job.”
Of the 518, only seven are High Court or second-trial justices and none are from the Supreme Court — the target of the demands for judicial reform.
Lin urged whoever is elected as the nation’s president on Jan. 14 to support judicial reform.
Judicial Yuan President Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏) said in response that flaws in the judicial system could not be rectified by merely changing the Supreme Court president.
An ad hoc committee reviewing the personnel system at the Judicial Yuan has been looking at all the issues related to “realistic reform” of the judicial system, Rai said.
“It will not evade any issue,” Rai said.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
RSS