Declaring a policy as unconstitutional would be “stricter than martial law” under new amendments to Constitutional Court procedures, as the most stringent threshold to back a ruling would be 90 percent of sitting judges, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said today.
Amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed by opposition lawmakers last week require that at least 10 justices participate in deliberations and nine agree in order to declare a law unconstitutional, Wu said.
With a maximum of 15 justices on the Constitutional Court, this establishes a minimum threshold of 60 percent and maximum threshold of 90 percent for ruling a law unconstitutional, she said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Chinese National Party (KMT) legislators rejected all seven judicial nominees and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rejected six, making it impossible for the Constitutional Court to reach a quorum of 10 judges, she said.
With the inability to appoint all 15 justices, the threshold for unconstitutional rulings is effectively 90 percent, which is the highest since the court’s founding in 1948, Wu said.
Under these conditions, there would be no reasonable Constitutional Court capable of issuing rulings to safeguard people's rights and the constitution, Wu said.
The decision allows the KMT and TPP to act recklessly, arbitrarily and with impunity, declaring laws unconstitutional as they please, she said.
As DPP lawmakers were united in in their voting of the judicial nominees, they avoided falling into a trap set by TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), Wu said.
As the TPP voted in favor of judicial nominee Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), if the DPP also voted in her favor, it would have allowed a minority to hijack constitutional rulings in the future, she said.
Liu should exercise restraint in her remarks, as “the nation’s constitutionalism is more important than personal power,” she said.
Separately today, Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said that President William Lai (賴清德) would promulgate the three amendments passed by the legislature on Friday last week according to lawful procedures, although the process has not yet begun.
Lai would renominate justices for the court in accordance with procedures, although the process may be delayed by the Lunar New Year and need to reconstitute the selection committee, Pan said.
Additional reporting by CNA
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International
RSS