Discussion about judicial reform has been ongoing for nearly 20 years, and the government has consulted with nongovernmental organizations and followed some of their advice. It has amended laws, developed new judicial mechanisms, established evaluation systems and disposed of many outdated things, but the public is not satisfied. Why?
Reform has to take on an intricate and complex constitutional system and court hierarchy, as well as an organism consisting of 2,000 judges, that at its heart is a legal culture that does not encourage rational dialogue.
Those in charge of reform must understand that it is nothing like resolving a traffic jam, where all you need is some determination to remove a bus lane. Nor is it like remote-controlling a camera drone, where you can detect problems from a distance.
The key question with judicial reform is: “How?” This could be achieved by turning the Judicial Yuan into a trial court, but that would be a highly complex constitutional process that could not be completed overnight.
Of course, there are also simple approaches, such as the view that enhancing the power of evaluation and disqualification by external third parties would make judges fall in line.
Anyone who has seen the Japanese anime One Piece knows that its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, has a signature combat technique called “Second Gear.” Even though he later learned “Third Gear,” a technique which enables him to fight with enlarged limbs, making him even more powerful, it caused him to shrink afterward.
The current pessimism among judicial practitioners is reason for concern that the stricter the government makes the evaluation system, the less likely justice is to be served, and that the tighter supervision gets, the less conscientious judges will become.
This is why reform must be pragmatic. The main question is how to make more than 2,000 judges — willingly — make fundamental improvements in themselves.
The public’s main expectations on the judiciary are that it will issue just, appropriate and timely verdicts. These three issues are the core of justice and the most crucial parts of judicial reform. Any reform that strays beyond these three issues will miss the point and further complicate matters, rendering it a futile exercise.
Here are five suggestions for how this could be avoided.
First, at a time when populism rules and pundits seem to run the nation, leading judicial officials must be able to use their prestige and constitutional outlook to safeguard the judiciary’s dignity and protect judicial independence, a core constitutional value.
Second, verdicts must be simplified and made understandable for the layman so that the judiciary can use verdicts as part of a dialogue with society at large and gain the public’s understanding and support.
Third, improve the current sentencing information system, simplifying it and making it easier to use, to assist judges in issuing just sentences.
Fourth, case performance evaluations and promotion measures must be completely removed so that judges will determine sentences solely based on conscientiousness, justice and the law, rather than based on considerations of performance and promotion in order to achieve appropriate sentencing.
Fifth, the accumulation of individual case experience and review of each step of the investigation and the judicial process will clarify the impact and function of trials and help streamline the process to avoid overlap and repetition, which will promote timely and effective justice.
Liu Wen-shi is a member of the Contemporary Taiwan Development Foundation’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.
Translated by Tu Yu-an and Perry Svensson
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