The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday proposed holding confirmation hearings on President Tsai Ying-wen’s (蔡英文) nominees to the Council of Grand Justices after the passage of amendments to the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法).
“Since the [legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes] Committee has completed its review of the proposed amendments, we urge all party caucuses to pass them into law before starting a review of the nominees. Given that there is already a consensus, would not conducting the reviews within the framework of the amendments be more complete and rigorous?” NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said during a meeting with Tsai’s nominee for Judicial Yuan president, Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力), who visited party offices with six other grand justice nominees.
“This is important, as it guarantees the right of all legislators to participate in the review, especially as there had not been enough time in the past [to conduct reviews],” he said.
“We do not want to see a situation in which time becomes pressing and the review process gets constrained because of an early voting date,” he added.
The proposed amendments would mandate that judicial nominees undergo at least one month of official legislative review prior to confirmation, with individual reviews being conducted and a roll call held for the confirmation vote.
Committee review of the amendments was largely completed during the previous legislative session, with an official proclamation by a committee coconvener the final step before they are sent to the general assembly.
While committee coconvener Lin Wei-chou (林為洲), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, has called for the amendments to be passed before new grand justice candidates are considered, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) has said that could delay plans for the holding of a national conference on judicial reform, which President Tsai has promised to call.
Ker last week said he favored holding five review meetings — including public hearings — in four days to speed up confirmations.
“I can understand his concerns, but the national affairs conference is not scheduled until next year, so there should be no conflict,” Hsu said, adding that extra reviews would not delay the conference as long as votes were held by December, when the legislative session ends.
Tsai nominated Hsu Tzong-li for Judicial Yuan president after her previous candidate, Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission Chief Commissioner Hsieh Wen-ting (謝文定), withdrew amid criticism over his role during the KMT authoritarian era.
However, Hsu Tzong-li’s nomination has also been questioned, because he had previously served on the council.
The Constitution forbids grand justices from holding consecutive terms, with some legal academics maintaining that the “no consecutive terms” provision should be interpreted as “once in a lifetime.”
Tsai’s national affairs conference is expected to focus on new measures to increase civic participation in court decisions, following the failure of efforts by the previous administration to introduce an “advisory jury” system.
The judicial nominations are also important because of expectations that the recently passed Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) will reach the Council of Grand Justices for constitutional review.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods