A draft amendment to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) proposed by a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker could shut down the judicial branch, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) wrote in an article published on Monday.
In the latest edition of the Chinese-language Contemporary Law Journal (當代法律), Huang wrote that the amendment should not be passed hastily.
The bill, proposed by KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and which passed a preliminary review on Oct. 18, would amend the Constitutional Court Procedure Act to specify that “the total number of incumbent justices” on the Constitutional Court is 15 as stipulated in Article 5 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
In September, the legislature passed a second reading of another amendment to the act, also proposed by Weng, that would require a two-thirds majority on the Constitutional Court to pass a ruling. Currently a simple majority is needed to pass a judgement, but the bill would require 10 justices to agree on a ruling, which would be difficult to meet if the legislature does not ratify judicial nominees.
Huang wrote that the Constitutional Court has yet to produce rulings in which professional opinions were disregarded and the chances are low that a ruling would be passed by only a few justices because others had recused themselves.
The Constitutional Court falls under the jurisdiction of the Judicial Yuan, and the legislature attempting to set the number of justices is overreach, which could essentially shut down the court, as legislators could stall the approval of judicial nominees, she wrote.
She urged the legislature to observe the separation of powers and leave judicial affairs to the Judicial Yuan.
TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday said that the party’s caucus had yet to decide whether to support Vivian Huang’s statements.
The caucus follows TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) instructions to maintain caucus solidarity, Huang Kuo-chang said.
The draft amendment is under review in inter-caucus discussions, which makes the TPP’s stance on it critical, as the amendment would be put to a floor vote should a consensus not be reached.
Huang Kuo-chang said Vivian Huang had not notified the TPP caucus that she had submitted the article to the journal.
When asked about the issue, Vivian Huang yesterday said that Weng is trying to set an official number of incumbent justices, which accompanied by the KMT-led legislature’s blocking of nominees to the Constitutional Court, would make it difficult for constitutional rulings to be passed.
As more than 90 percent of the petitions for a constitutional ruling were filed by members of the public, the proposed amendments would affect people’s rights, she said, adding that she would present the same arguments when the TPP caucus meets.
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