Reflection on Legal Services Special Topic Course "Dummy Account Cases": Liu Pei-han

"How can I successfully convey the phenomena I observed to people who have never heard of a dummy account case?" This was the question I kept asking myself while preparing my presentation, because with only a concise ten minutes available, I had to express my ideas powerfully and succinctly.

Starting from the winter break, when I began engaging with individual client cases, reading through client records and judgments, I discovered that the reasoning sections of the judgments in many cases were strikingly similar, which inevitably prompted a deeper investigation. Some clients had indeed been defrauded by scam syndicates before handing over their accounts and passwords, yet the courts still held them to be accomplices to fraud. What exactly is the standard for determination? Perhaps different standards are adopted depending on the specific circumstances of a case. However, in cases related to this, the gist of the guilty judgment reasoning is mostly: "The defendant possesses considerable intellect and social experience, and given that types of fraud crimes have emerged endlessly in recent years and been widely reported by the media, it is truly difficult to claim ignorance." By using abstract and general ways to determine the defendant's subjective criminal intent, did the court listen to and understand the stories behind the defendants? Everyone's life story is different, and their cognitive understanding of the world varies as well. One cannot simply conclude that the defendant possessed the conditional intent (dolus eventualis) to aid and abet fraud merely based on the act of handing over bank accounts and passwords. The judicial phenomena perceived from individual client cases are not limited to these alone. Those attending the seminar might be people encountering dummy account cases for the first time, or they might be individuals with a deeper understanding of the law. Therefore, expressing these thoughts in a way that all listeners could understand was not as easy as discussing things casually with classmates.

I never imagined that during my university years, I would stand on the stage of a seminar, alongside the many people participating with us in this academic symposium. An hour before taking the stage, I suddenly became quite anxious, beginning to doubt whether I could complete the presentation smoothly. I am very glad that before going on stage, I practiced once with the classmate presenting in the same session, which helped calm my nerves. During the formal presentation, I was still a bit nervous at first, causing my speaking pace to be slightly fast, but I gradually slowed down later on so that the audience could clearly grasp the presentation content. To my delight, the discussant—a judge from a certain district court—responded directly to the judicial phenomena I raised. Beyond hoping that personnel within the judicial system would take notice of issues related to dummy account cases, I also hope the general public will pay attention together; without concern, the problem will only persist and worsen. Being able to gain this stage experience has been extremely fortunate. Aside from building some courage, it has also boosted my self-confidence. If there are similar opportunities in the future, I hope to overcome my nervousness and fear to make my presentation even more perfect and smooth!