Analysis: Taiwan Constitutional Court Has Become Legislative Battlefield

TaiwanPlus News

Professor Chien-Chih Lin discusses how amendments facing Taiwan's Constitutional Court could potentially paralyze its operations. He also explains why it has become a political battlefield for the country's legislators.

Transcript

00:00I want to start off by asking, are the proposed changes by the Kuomintang actually aiming

00:05for reform, or are these part of political gamesmanship that they are using in this split

00:11legislature right now?

00:13I think it's more political than, you know, reform, judicial reform or something.

00:20Because the current Constitutional Court Procedure Act was effective in 2022.

00:27To me, I could be biased, but to me, I think the legislative intent of the new Constitutional

00:32Court Procedure Act, the amendment, obviously intend to paralyze the court because of the

00:39frustration of one of the previous decisions the court has made, to frustrate the legislative

00:47effort to expand their own power.

00:51So I guess the legislators were really unhappy about that decision, which is why they want

00:56to paralyze the court by this way.

00:59So it's not really about judicial reform or something, it's simply a political game.

01:03What could we see as the next stage if these amendments pass?

01:06Well, there are many arguments so far, because it's really complicated.

01:12If the bill is passed today, again, then the next step will be President Lai.

01:19And there are some arguments that said President Lai has the power not to promulgate the law

01:25if he finds it unconstitutional.

01:28But this is not my opinion.

01:29I think we do not need to give the president the power to decide unilaterally whether a

01:35law should be constitutional or not.

01:38And then the next step would be like something like, you know, it could be that some persons

01:42would change the constitutionality of the law in the Constitutional Court, and then

01:47the battlefield will move to the Constitutional Court and to move to the justice themselves.

01:52So moving forward, will the Constitutional Court then become the main battlefield for

01:56politics over the next three years, as we are only one year into this split legislature?

02:04I think the Constitutional Court will become a battlefield in two senses.

02:07First, there are multiple ways, this is common in every jurisdiction, there are multiple

02:13ways for the legislature to attack or at least contain a court they dislike.

02:19So even if this bill is declared unconstitutional and invalid, I believe that the legislature

02:26still has many ways to constrain the court.

02:30And this is actually not the first time Taiwan's legislature attacked Taiwan's Constitutional

02:36Court.

02:37It has happened at least two or three times in the past, I think.

02:41If the Constitutional Court remains functioning, then you can imagine that President Lai or

02:47his executive branch would continue to challenge the constitutionality of any statute passed

02:54by the legislature that they dislike.

02:56So you can see that there will be many constitutional cases being petitioned to the Constitutional

03:02Court asking the justice, you know, 8 or 15 or whatever between them, asking the Constitutional

03:08Court justice to adjudicate the constitutionality of those controversial bills or those controversial

03:13statutes.

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