Council of Grand Justices nominees should be required to explain their positions on constitutional issues, New Power Party (NPP) lawmakers said yesterday, promising to question the nominees about same-sex marriage, gender equality and other topics.
“In the past, the review of grand justice nominees has often been reduced to a formality, but we feel that the new legislature should do things differently,” NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said, laying out a detailed questionnaire covering topics such as same-sex marriage, Aboriginal rights, gender equality and religion.
The party’s questionnaires for the nominees for president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan — who are also grand justices — also include issues such as evaluating and replacing judges, the necessity of a special labor court and the legal separation of judges and public prosecutors.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“Future members of the Council of Grand Justices are extremely important because there are many important political and social reforms that could end up in their hands,” NPP caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said. “This is not just a test — we hope it will highlight their values.”
Huang said that the nature of the constitutional review system should stop the nominees avoiding questions about their values.
“In Taiwan, we have adopted a system of constitutional review which focuses on abstract questions about specific laws, not the details of specific legal cases, because laws and regulations are crystal clear, there is no point in reviewing if the nominees are incapable or unwilling to express their constitutional values and beliefs,” he said. “Can we honestly accept nominees only being required to pledge that they support human rights and the separation of powers?”
“We’ve proposed this questionnaire because as soon as the Judicial Yuan president, vice president and other members of the Council of Grand Justices win approval, we will not have another opportunity to hold them accountable,” he added.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
INCENTIVES: The province’s ‘21 measures’ include enhanced agricultural loans for Taiwanese farmers, and rent waivers and housing subsidies for Taiwanese start-ups China’s Fujian Province on Monday began implementing 15 economic measures targeting Taiwanese in its latest bid to fan pro-Beijing sentiment ahead of the Jan. 13 elections. Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency said the policies were part of “21 measures” unveiled in September by China for Fujian’s “integrated cross-strait development demonstration zone.” The partially implemented measures, which were created with input from Beijing, include reducing the wait time for Taiwanese applying for a visa from 20 days to five days and free public transit for Taiwanese older than 65, it said. Residents of Taiwan were granted use of the “all provincial Taiwanese entrepreneur compatriot
Tokyo has requested regions in southern Japan to accommodate people evacuated from Okinawa Prefecture in case of a war in the Taiwan Strait, Kyodo news agency reported on Monday. If a conflict breaks out across the Strait, people on the Sakishima Islands, which lie between Taiwan proper and Okinawa’s main island, would have to be evacuated from the prefecture, the news agency reported. An estimated 120,000 people would need to be moved, including 110,000 citizens and 10,000 tourists, it said. Niitani Koushi, who is in charge of crisis management at the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat, visited Yamaguchi Prefecture at the southern end of Japan’s
RSS