James Yang (
Yang, the author of Come on! Lawyer! Judge! Liar?, is currently a second-year graduate student of the NCU's Industrial Economics Law Division.
Yang is a graduate from the National Taiwan University's (NTU, 台灣大學) Law Department. He told the Taipei Times that he participated in the Bar exam after he graduated last year but he decided to leave in the middle of the exam.
"It was ridiculous," he said. "Many questions on the test came from either material taught exclusively at cram schools or they were selected from famous law professors' publications. Which means, if you didn't go to the cram schools or haven't read these professors' texts, you will never be able to answer these questions. That's not fair."
Yang wrote in his book that in order to pass the Bar exam, many law students stop going to classes and start going to cram schools during their third or fourth year in college.
"I'm not saying that going to cram schools is a bad thing. Actually, I think these cram schools do help students outline the text books while they are studying for the exam. However, many students are misled. The students don't realize that attending classes on campus should be their priority," he said.
Yang said that seats are often empty for important classes such as "International Business" since the course is not included in the Bar exam.
However, if the course is included in the Bar exam or instructed by a professor who has been or might be an examiner for the Bar exam, absenteeism will not be a problem for the class.
Taiwan's law education includes undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degrees. Those who have finished their four-year undergraduate law education are eligible to participate in the Bar exam.
Yang is the first person in Taiwan who has published a book detailing some of the problems of the country's Bar exam and how these problems affect law education.
He said that he had decided against a career in law. However, he still hopes to pass on legal knowledge to the younger generation.
"I will not take part in the Bar exam ever again and I'm not planning to take other exams to become a judge or a prosecutor," he said. "However, if I have the chance, I'll be more than happy to accomplish a doctorate degree in law and become a law professor."
The book was first published on July 15 and is available at major bookstores.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS