Judicial watchdog groups yesterday panned the nomination process for the Council of Grand Justices as “severely flawed” and not rigorous enough, calling on the four grand justice candidates to decline their nominations.
The nominees — Chen Be-yue (陳碧玉), Huang Hsi-chun (黃璽君), Lo Chang-fa (羅昌發) and Tang Te-tsung (湯德宗) — were nominated by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) late last month to replace the four incumbent grand justices, whose terms are due to expire at the end of September.
Following the sudden change of grand justice nominee Supreme Court Judge Shao Yen-ling (邵燕玲), who declined Ma’s nomination after a media uproar over her role in a controversial child molestation ruling, Chen also found herself at the center of controversy.
Chen, head of the Judicial Personnel Study Center, once held a US green card during her stint as a Supreme Court judge. Lo, a chair professor at National Taiwan University, at one time had permanent residency in Canada.
“The nominations have betrayed the lack of seriousness that Ma has shown toward the judicial system and judicial reform,” said Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), an associate professor of law at National Taiwan University that is a part of the non-profit Taiwan Democracy Watch.
An umbrella organization of seven judicial groups, including the Taiwan Bar Association, has said that it would boycott offering further views on the nominations in a sign of protest.
Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源), a research fellow at Academia Sinica that spoke for the umbrella group, said that this would be the first year since 2003 that judicial watchdogs have refused to issue an opinion on the Grand Justice nominations.
“This boycott represents our opinion on the current candidates,” he said, adding that Ma needed to “seriously consider” reopening the entire nomination process.
“It will return some of the respect to the Grand Justice position,” he said.
The list of the four grand justices nominees was sent to the legislature on Wednesday for approval.
A cross-party negotiation initially slated to take place yestersday to discuss the review procedures has been postponed to Monday.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
RSS