Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) on Wednesday held a news conference where he provided a summary of the deliberations by the preparatory committees for the National Congress on Judicial Reform. He mentioned six major measures that would inform the reform process: transparency, participation, impartiality, resolving injustice, efficiency and human rights.
The only measure that gets anywhere near the core of reforming the prosecutorial system is the proposed establishment of a citizen review commission, allowing public participation in the prosecutorial review process. The rest are empty slogans that do not reach to the core of reform.
The quality of prosecutors is central to judicial reform, and this is why effective reform is measured in terms of the quality and number of prosecutors, their level of competency, and their sense of vocation and mission.
On May 3, not long after Taipei district prosecutor Su Chen-wen (蘇振文) handed his resignation letter to Chiu, Lee Chun-pu (李俊璞) of the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office, who had taken the unprecedented step of changing occupations from doctor to prosecutor, followed suit.
These were grassroots prosecutors disillusioned with the excessive workload and the opaque way the congress was carrying out its business.
Their resignations sent out a major warning signal, but their concerns were largely ignored in the six measures.
There were 1,389 prosecutors in the nation as of March 13, according to Ministry of Justice statistics.
However, district prosecutors, who are on the front line, made up less than 75 percent of that number, while those working for the High Prosecutors’ Office and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office account for 13.88 percent and 1.57 percent respectively.
In Japan, the figures are 94.59 percent, 4.75 percent and 0.66 percent respectively, suggesting that Taiwan does not have enough prosecutors and that they are poorly deployed.
The bulk of criminal investigative work, after all, is carried out at the district level.
According to the statistics, prosecutors at the district level take on an average of 52 new cases each month, not including unsolved cases they are working on or those requiring further field work or autopsies.
Lee, for example, was working on 80 cases before he resigned. Even if he took up residency at the office and did nothing else but try to clear his backlog, it was a virtually impossible task. He could not cope with returning cases, rigorous examinations and the excessive workload, and was obliged to repay the cost of his training, a hefty NT$1.5 million (US$49,636 at the current exchange rate).
The statistics also show that prosecutors are expected to handle a minimum of 28 cases each month, with a single case requiring at least 44 days of work.
Is it realistic for the public to expect prosecutors working under these conditions — personnel shortages and mountains of files that cannot be cleared even if they worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week — to get to the bottom of all of the crimes that cross their desks?
Perhaps the nation could take a page from Japan’s book and give the police the power to process cases involving lesser crimes, instead of expecting prosecutors to handle each and every one of them.
In addition, the ministry should improve the conditions of prosecutors, investigators, forensic technicians and inspectors, and share some of the workload of the district prosecutors’ offices to enhance the quality of criminal investigations and the quality of the prosecutors, and to give them more of a sense of mission in their job.
Lin Terng-yaw is a lawyer.
Translated by Paul Cooper
With the Year of the Snake reaching its conclusion on Monday next week, now is an opportune moment to reflect on the past year — a year marked by institutional strain and national resilience. For Taiwan, the Year of the Snake was a composite of political friction, economic momentum, social unease and strategic consolidation. In the political sphere, it was defined less by legislative productivity and more by partisan confrontation. The mass recall movement sought to remove 31 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators following the passage of controversial bills that expanded legislative powers and imposed sweeping budget cuts. While the effort
There is a story in India about a boy called Prahlad who was an ardent worshipper of Lord Narayana, whom his father considered an enemy. His son’s devotion vexed the father to the extent that he asked his sister, Holika, who could not be burned by fire, to sit with the boy in her lap and burn him to death. Prahlad knew about this evil plan, but sat in his aunt’s lap anyway. His faith won, as he remained unscathed by the fire, while his aunt was devoured by the flames. In some small way, Prahlad reminds me of Taiwan
When Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced newspaper owner Jimmy Lai (黎智英) to 20 years in prison this week, officials declared that his “heinous crimes” had long poisoned society and that his punishment represented justice restored. In their telling, Lai is the mastermind of Hong Kong’s unrest — the architect of a vast conspiracy that manipulated an otherwise contented population into defiance. They imply that removing him would lead to the return of stability. It is a politically convenient narrative — and a profoundly false one. Lai did not radicalize Hong Kong. He belonged to the same generation that fled from the Chinese
President William Lai (賴清德) on Sunday congratulated Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on their historic landslide victory in Japan’s general election. The LDP secured the largest single-party majority in post-World War II Japan, winning 316 seats. The win is expected to strengthen ties with Japan’s allies and potentially deter Chinese aggression in the region. American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene on Monday said that under Takaichi’s leadership, he anticipates deeper coordination among the US, Japan and Taiwan to promote regional stability and prosperity. US President Donald Trump has also shown his strong support for Takaichi,
RSS