Four groups yesterday paid a visit to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to propose judicial reform platforms, with Tsai saying that such reforms should be led by the nation’s leader in order to ensure progress.
Tsai, the party’s presidential candidate in next year’s January elections, said the DPP think tank’s judicial reform team has proposed nine concrete reform platforms and that if elected, she would convene a national judicial reform convention to deliberate on a system that is most compatible with Taiwan’s circumstances and people.
Representatives of the Taiwan Bar Association, the Taipei Bar Association, the Taiwan Law Society and the Judicial Reform Foundation met with Tsai, who was accompanied by DPP think tank judicial reform task force convener Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄) and attorneys Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), two long-time human rights advocates. The talk lasted about an hour and was open to the media.
Tsai said reforms needed to be sensitive to the public’s needs and should be accomplished following the core value of a “people’s judicial system.”
The quality and integrity of the judiciary must be improved and include an exit mechanism designed to strengthen the public’s trust in the system and rid it of injustice, she said, adding that the protection of human rights should be secured through “institutional reforms.”
Tsai also expressed her disapproval of the “observer jury” system that the Judicial Yuan created in 2011, in which she said the public lacks real power to participate and adjudicate.
The idiosyncratic system contradicts the principles and spirit of a nation that observes the rule of law and does not help to achieve the democratization of the judicial system, Tsai said, adding that if elected, she would convene a national judicial reform convention to discuss the possibilities of adopting other models, including the jury system and the lay judge system.
Tsai said reforms should be guided by the president to guarantee accelerated progress. As the judicial system cannot reform itself automatically, political will is needed for the task, as well as a president who is able to coordinate reform efforts in different branches of the government, she said.
The goal of judicial reform is fairness, justice and the protection of human rights, which is what the DPP has always advocated, Tsai added.
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