The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday called for more transparency and accountability in the judicial system as it launched a new database containing the written judgements of court cases.
The database will allow the public to scrutinize the decisions and conduct of judges and prosecutors, foundation members said.
“The database is an important addition to our ‘Sunshine Justice’ Web site. We want to have open access to this information, to make it more people-friendly and to bring sunshine into the system,” foundation chairman Lin Yung-sung (林永頌) said.
It took a lot of time and effort to search for and compile the material, since the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice have not updated their computer systems or Web site applications, making it difficult to retrieve information on past court case judgements, Lin said.
On the foundation’s Web site, the database is on an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows users to search and access the judgements, as well as information on the prosecutors, judges and lawyers involved in a case, the foundation’s manager of information-technology said.
“We set up the API platform like a search engine to make it convenient for the public to look at the collected materials and court case files over the years. Users can search and access files, and download and store information for studying, referencing or other uses,” Lin said.
Opening court case files to the public could lead to an improved public understanding of how the judicial system works, and in turn promote better transparency and accountability by prosecutors and judges, he said.
Although the public can already search case rulings on the Judicial Yuan’s Web site, that site runs on an older interface system that uses the outdated Big-5 code for Chinese characters, rather than the UTF-8 code format common to most digital devices today, so there could be compatibility problems when people try to access or read the content, Lin and foundation executive director Kao Jung-chih (高榮志) said.
The Judicial Yuan and the ministry need to keep up with technological advancements, Kao said.
He also called on them to implement new policies to open up the digital information resources and update their interface systems to allow the public to access information via their smartphones.
There have long been complaints regarding access problems and a lack of transparency for the Judicial Yuan’s interface system, which was why the foundation decided to develop its API platform to serve regular people, legal scholars and lawyers seeking open information on court cases, Kao said.
The “Sunshine Justice” site is at sunshine.jrf.org.tw.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS