Appointing a Prosecutor-General Expected by the People

In the 33rd year of Kuang-hsu in the late Ching dynasty (1907), the Ching government modeled its judicial system on that of Japan at the time and promulgated the "Provisional Regulations for Trial Courts of All Levels from Higher Courts Downward," marking the beginning of the prosecutorial system of the Republic of China, which reaches its centenary this year. On January 13, 2006, the Legislative Yuan just passed relevant amendments to the Court Organization Act concerning the prosecutor system. As our country's prosecutorial system enters a new century, realizing these reforms to safeguard the neutralization of prosecutors is of particularly extraordinary significance.

However, although the public is full of expectations for the prosecutor system under the new framework, laws alone cannot enforce themselves. The Anti-Corruption Action Alliance believes that the public must continue to monitor various major measures concerning the systemic transformation of prosecutors to ensure that the new prosecutor system can perform its proper functions.

The key points of the current amendments to the prosecutor system—presidential nomination with parliamentary consent and tenure protection—have enhanced the neutral status of the Prosecutor-General; furthermore, the establishment of the Special Investigation Division under the Supreme Prosecutors Office enables it to unearth wrongdoing and crack down on crime; it also grants the Prosecutor-General the role of ex officio representative and the authority to appoint three representatives to participate in the operation of the Prosecutor Personnel Review Committee, wielding partial personnel authority. Coupled with the Prosecutor-General's inherent power of case direction and supervision under the principle of the unity of the prosecutorial system, the Prosecutor-General tends to hold substantive power. Therefore, an outstanding, competent, and credible Prosecutor-General will be a necessary condition for the proper operation of this system. Especially after the promulgation of the bill, the appointment of the first Prosecutor-General bears upon the establishment of future prosecutorial traditions and holds particular indicator significance.

Based on these considerations, the Anti-Corruption Action Alliance will strictly monitor the President's nomination of the Prosecutor-General and the parliament's exercise of its consent power regarding the candidate for Prosecutor-General, in order to ensure that a competent Prosecutor-General is produced. Our monitoring will include the following three stages:

1. Setting the criteria for the Prosecutor-General candidate: Prior to the President's nomination, we will propose the negative and positive qualifications for the candidate and demand that the President put forward a candidate who meets these requirements.
2. Reviewing the Prosecutor-General candidate nominated by the President: Following the President's nomination, we will examine whether the new candidate for Prosecutor-General meets public expectations based on the aforementioned qualifications and conditions.
3. During the parliament's exercise of the consent power: We will monitor the Legislative Yuan to ensure that its exercise of consent for the appointment of the Prosecutor-General is grounded in the interests of the state and the people, strictly acts as a gatekeeper in accordance with the law, eradicates the bad habit of lobbying for votes, and rigorously prevents inappropriate conditional exchanges involving case-specific political interference.

According to Paragraph 8, Article 66 of the newly amended Court Organization Act, the President shall submit a candidate for the Prosecutor-General of the Supreme Prosecutors Office to the Legislative Yuan within one month after the effective date of the new law. The President is about to make the nomination for the first Prosecutor-General following the legal amendments. Today, the Anti-Corruption Action Alliance puts forward our perceived standards for the Prosecutor-General candidate and hopes that the public will jointly supervise the emergence of the new Prosecutor-General, so as to establish a credible and strong prosecutorial system, stamp out criminal activity, and consolidate the foundation of democracy and the rule of law!

Standards for the Prosecutor-General Candidate

Status and Powers	Negative Qualifications	Positive Qualifications
Role model for all prosecutors	Free from serious flaws in morality and integrity, and free from income and assets of unknown origin	Simple interpersonal and financial relationships, strict adherence to the principle of recusal, and maintenance of a good prosecutor image
Neutral law enforcement	Has never exhibited obvious political, ethnic, gender, religious or other biased stances in the exercise of official duties	Impartial law enforcement, fair and just, capable of gaining public trust
Representative of the public interest	No record of human rights violations or dereliction of duty	Values human rights while possessing insight into social trends, and capable of timely coordinating prosecutors in prosecuting crimes
Public statements	Has never made rash, irresponsible statements or leaked important investigative secrets	Prudent in speech, neither humble nor overbearing, adept at explaining the neutral law enforcement stance of prosecutors
Safeguarding prosecutor independence	Has never lobbied for others' cases, nor backed down or altered their law enforcement stance due to lobbying by any individual or group, or inappropriate pressure from political or media forces	Possesses stress resilience, capable of maintaining impartial law enforcement under intense pressure, investigating privileged individuals, and administering justice without fear or favor.
Executing the criminal policy of the Ministry of Justice	Not a yes-man, capable of defending the judicial attribute of prosecutors, and possessing the ability to offer constructive advice regarding inappropriate policies by the Minister of Justice without becoming a political appendage	Possesses a high degree of execution capability, capable of enforcing the criminal policies of the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the law, and maximizing the social effectiveness of prosecutors
Leading the Special Investigation Division	Must not lack practical experience in handling cases	Possesses the ability to investigate or substantially lead prosecutors in investigating major cases
Leader of the unified prosecutorial system	Has never had a record of improperly or neglectfully exercising prosecutorial direction powers under the unity of the system, including powers of succession and transfer	Possesses communication and coordination skills, respects the official powers of prosecutors, and can proactively integrate prosecutorial resources to encourage prosecutors in actively prosecuting illegality
Participating in prosecutor personnel transfers	Has never utilized official authority to build personal influence, handles personnel matters fairly, and remains unaffected by personal obligations or self-interest	Recognizes and employs talent appropriately, and appoints people on their merits. Possesses the moral courage to reform prosecutorial discipline and weed out incompetent prosecutors