The Constitutional Court yesterday issued its first judgement of the new year, with five out of eight justices ruling that a defendant’s attorney can petition to cancel or change a court-ordered detention, as long as it aligns with the defendant’s interests and wishes.
While the Constitutional Court can constitutionally have up to 15 justices, it currently only has eight, as opposition party legislators in December 2024 and again in July last year blocked the appointment of seven new justices. President William Lai (賴清德) has not issued a new set of nominees since.
It was the court’s second judgement since opposition party legislators passed amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) at the end of 2024 requiring at least 10 justices to participate in deliberations and rulings, effectively freezing the court’s function.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
Five of the current justices issued a judgement on Dec. 19 last year ruling the amendments unconstitutional and invalid.
The remaining three refused to participate in deliberations, arguing that the ruling itself was invalid.
The judgement yesterday said that these three justices also refused to participate in deliberations in this case.
If the three were counted toward the total number of justices, the court would be unable to issue a ruling, which would interfere with it exercising its power of constitutional interpretation and impede a petitioner’s right to litigation, contravening the Constitution, the judgement said.
Therefore, following the reasoning of the court’s judgement on Dec. 19 last year, the three justices who refused to participate would be excluded from the current total, it said.
Yesterday’s ruling was about a petition accepted on Oct. 11, 2023, regarding a provision in Article 416 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法) that only allows detained defendants to file for release on their own behalf.
The petitioner, Lin Feng-fan (林峰帆), said that as detainees’ personal liberties are restricted, they are often unable to file for themselves.
However, lawyers are not allowed to file for them under the provision, effectively depriving them of any opportunity for redress, he said.
This contravenes constitutional protections of personal liberty and the right to litigation, Lin said, requesting the court declare the provision unconstitutional.
Lin was indicted by the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office for contravening the Firearms, Ammunition and Knives Control Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Pingtung District Court ordered his detention on Dec. 29, 2022.
The Pingtung District Court later rejected a request by Lin’s attorney to revoke the detention, as it only bore the attorney’s signature and not the defendant’s.
In yesterday’s judgement, the Constitutional Court ruled that this decision was unconstitutional and said it should be annulled, remanding the case to the Pingtung District Court.
The Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday affirmed the Constitutional Court’s ruling, while expressing regret over the absence of the three justices during the deliberations.
The Taiwan People’s Party in a statement yesterday said that “unconstitutional actions are still unconstitutional, and illegal actions remain illegal.”
The five judges “involved in the unconstitutional and illegal actions cannot legitimize or constitutionalize an unconstitutional and illegal judgement simply because their suggestions help protect the rights of the accused in legal proceedings,” the statement said.
Additional reporting by Liu Wan-lin
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