Analysis: Opposition Rejects Lai's Constitutional Court Nominees Again

TaiwanPlus News

The opposition has blocked all of President Lai's nominees for Taiwan's highest court for the second time. The 15-seat court requires a minimum of 10 justices to function but currently only has eight. Wang Shih-an from Kobe University’s School of Law offers her insights on the decision and what it means for Taiwan's justice system moving forward.

Transcript

00:00This is the second time the opposition has voted against Lai's nominees for Constitutional Court justices.

00:06What are their concerns and why have they rejected these nominees yet again?

00:10The concerns of the opposition parties is that they

00:15worry that these justices being picked by President Lai

00:20cannot act independent or independent from political influence from the governing party.

00:27And are their concerns valid? How much is this about inter-party politics?

00:32So President Lai picked four nominees from the judicial system

00:38and three from the academic system.

00:41And I think all of them are very competent because for the professors,

00:46they wrote a lot on various topics and they have taught for quite a long time in university.

00:53So I think they have a very good understanding of the law.

00:56On the other hand, people from the judicial system,

01:00they have extensive experiences about adjudication of the law, prosecution and real legal practice.

01:08So I think they are very competent nominees.

01:12So it actually remains unclear to me about what is the real concerns for the opposition party.

01:22So this decision means that the Constitutional Court still doesn't have enough justices to function.

01:27It needs a minimum of 10 and it currently only has eight.

01:30What does this mean for Taiwan's justice system moving forward?

01:34So in Taiwan, the Constitutional Court takes care of reviewing the constitutionality of statutes as well as other functions.

01:45But let's focus on the constitutionality review.

01:49And so for ordinary people, they can actually bring a case,

01:55bring a petition to the courts if they believe that their rights were violated.

02:01So right now, because the court couldn't function,

02:05that means that individuals could not have the opportunity to have their cases be reviewed by the Constitutional Court.

02:15Do you think the KMT, DPP and TPP will ever be able to reach a consensus on candidates?

02:22So I think based on based on the rationale this time,

02:27they see the court as an aliens for the DPP.

02:31So if they are if they are relying on the same rationale that this time,

02:36then it's quite likely that they will oppose to the to presidential nominees next time.

02:43See you next time.

02:44See you next time.

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