The Judicial Yuan on Saturday presented its position on a bill to allow citizens to participate in deciding criminal trials, listing 10 reasons against the implementation of a jury system.
In a document submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of a committee hearing scheduled for today, the Judicial Yuan said that it favors Japan’s system of citizen participation rather than a jury system.
Compared with jury systems in many Western countries, in which jurors give verdicts, but are not involved in sentencing, Japan randomly selects six people to be lay judges who sit alongside three court judges and help decide verdicts and sentences.
The Japanese system allows better communication and interaction between citizens and court judges, and negates “hung juries,” which can lengthen trials, the Judicial Yuan said.
Allowing citizens a role in sentencing also meets public expectations, it said.
Other reasons that it gave against a jury system were that a jury does not need to give reasons for a verdict, which contradicts the Constitution regarding people’s rights in the trial and appeals process.
The Judicial Yuan also cited the cost of forming a jury and said that allowing a jury to hand out verdicts might contradict Constitutional Court Interpretation No. 378, which defines what constitutes a court.
Nations such as Japan and France, which previously used a jury system, are shifting to the lay judge model, it said, while criticizing the jury system in the US.
Surveys conducted by the Taiwan Database for Empirical Legal Studies and National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center, as well as opinions collected through mock trials over the past few years, show that most people favor the lay judge model, it said.
Legislators at a committee hearing this month said that the proposal, which was presented by the Cabinet and the Judicial Yuan, would limit the participation of citizens in criminal trials to an estimated 600 cases per year.
The proposal says that citizen participation is limited to major felonies that carry prison sentences of 10 years or more, as well as cases involving death caused intentionally.
The estimate was made based on the number of such cases from 2015 to last year, the Judicial Yuan document said.
Given that it is a new system, the limit is appropriate, but is open for review and amendment, it said.
The draft was first presented to the legislature in April 2017 as part of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) planned reform of the judicial system, but lawmakers did not pass it before their term ended in January.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to