In the absence of a jury system, the Judicial Yuan has proposed incorporating input from the general public into criminal trials.
"A `lay judge system' would help the judicial system to supplement judges' decisions, which may fail to reflect the public's feelings and values," Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Fan Kuang-chun (
Three judges currently preside over criminal trials, and there is no jury system in the country.
A lay judge system would also promote the principles of judicial democratization and transparency, he added.
According to Fan, the Judicial Yuan is considering applying the lay judge system to capital crimes.
Germany, which has a judicial system similar to Taiwan's, has already implemented a lay judge system, and Japan plans to implement such a system in 2009, Fan said.
Fan said that the Judicial Yuan would make a proposal on a lay judge system after examining the systems in Germany and Japan, as well as the jury systems in the UK and US.
In July last year, Fan asked the Judicial Yuan to evaluate the viability of a lay judge system.
According to an initial proposal, lay judges should be drawn from the ranks of Taiwanese nationals who have completed the nation's compulsory education system and who have no criminal record. Law professors and lawyers would be ruled out as lay judges.
Fan said that the proposal did not make any suggestions on how many members an lay judge panel would have.
The panel studying the proposal suggested that the lay judge system be applied only when defendants of serious crimes request it.
The Judicial Yuan evaluated a lay judge system more than 10 years ago, but abandoned it because some legal experts considered it unconstitutional.
Those who opposed the lay judge system argued that the Constitution empowered professional judges to make rulings in criminal trials, not members of the general public.
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