FY 1998 Judicial Yuan Budget Argument

I. Proposed Concurrent Resolutions for the Judicial Yuan Budget:

1. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Constitutional Court of the Council of Grand Justices shall be fully open and broadcast live via electronic media to strengthen legal education for the public.

   Explanation:
   To enable the public to understand the content of Constitutional Court debates and thereby gain a deeper understanding of democracy and the rule of law, the debate process of the Constitutional Court of the Council of Grand Justices should be fully open and broadcast live via electronic media to strengthen public legal education.

2. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》Courts at all levels nationwide shall place judge nameplates on the judge's bench in courtrooms.

   Explanation:
   To enhance the dignity and sense of honor of judges, ensure judges take responsibility for their own names, and prevent the public from generalizing praise or criticism toward the court, the Judicial Yuan should issue a general order requiring courts at all levels nationwide to place judge nameplates on the judge's bench during trials.

3. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Judicial Yuan shall make the established full-text electronic database retrieval system for judgments of courts at all levels nationwide publicly accessible, and shall at least make it available to people's representatives, academic institutions, journalist associations, and bar associations at all levels within three months.

   Explanation:
   The Judicial Yuan stated at a judicial reform seminar co-hosted with civil society organizations on January 21 that establishing a computerized retrieval system for judgment documents of courts at all levels nationwide is no longer technically difficult and has already been implemented. Therefore, the Judicial Yuan should promptly make the established full-text electronic database retrieval system for judgments of courts at all levels nationwide publicly accessible, and shall at least make it available to people's representatives, academic institutions, journalist associations, and bar associations at all levels within three months, for the purposes of judgment research, evaluation, and supervision.

4. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Judicial Yuan shall formulate a plan within six months to improve the current situation of judges being overburdened with cases, through methods such as centralized trials, increasing staffing, adding judicial assistants, strengthening factual adjudication, adopting post-adjudication review, and simplifying judgment documents.

   Explanation:
   The excessive workload of judges has long created a vicious cycle of low judgment quality and reduced public trust in the judiciary. The Judicial Yuan should earnestly address the current situation of excessive judge workloads by formulating a timetable within six months for improvement plans using methods such as centralized trials, increasing staffing, adding judicial assistants, strengthening factual adjudication, adopting post-adjudication review, and simplifying judgment documents.

5. The Judicial Yuan shall formulate a timetable within six months for the comprehensive implementation of centralized trials in civil and criminal litigation cases, and shall pilot centralized trials starting immediately for cases involving offenses carrying a minimum sentence of five years or more of imprisonment.

   Explanation:
   The centralized trial system will reduce the time, energy, and expenses wasted by judges, prosecutors, and parties in litigation proceedings, save national judicial resources, and ensure the freshness of the judge's mental impression in pursuit of discovering the truth. Therefore, the Judicial Yuan should formulate a timetable within six months for the comprehensive implementation of centralized trials in civil and criminal litigation cases, and shall pilot centralized trials starting immediately for cases involving offenses carrying a minimum sentence of five years or more of imprisonment, so as to improve the resource waste currently caused by segmented trials.

6. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Judicial Yuan shall formulate a plan within six months to replace the current method of recording minutes with electronic or mechanical means, which shall faithfully and thoroughly record all courtroom activities.

   Explanation:
   The recording of minutes in current civil and criminal litigation proceedings is mostly done through manual transcription, resulting in frequent omissions and errors, which heavily impedes the discovery of truth. A plan should be formulated within six months to replace the current method of recording minutes with electronic or mechanical means, in order to faithfully and thoroughly record all courtroom activities.

7. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》Criminal defendants who are detained shall be ordered to wear neat clothing when appearing in court, so as to maintain the dignity of the courtroom and the human rights of the defendant.

   Explanation:
   Currently, detained criminal defendants appearing in court are often only permitted to wear detention center shorts and slippers, creating an unfavorable impression of the criminal suspect for the judge, which impedes both the dignity of the courtroom and the human rights of the defendant. Therefore, criminal defendants appearing in court should be required to wear neat clothing to maintain the defendant's dignity and thereby strive for fairness in adjudication.

8. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Judicial Yuan shall formulate measures within six months for judges to open court on time (for example, scheduling a set number of cases per half-hour, with those who arrive first being heard first. The trial time for major cases should not be set too short.)

   Explanation:
   Judges arriving late for court seriously compromises the rights and interests of the parties, and currently some courts only audit whether the first case on a judge's docket starts on time. The Judicial Yuan should comprehensively understand how to respond to practical needs by formulating measures for judges to schedule hearing dates, such as imitating German court practices of scheduling four or five cases per half-hour, hearing those who arrive first, and reserving more time for major cases, so as to schedule hearing dates in a manner that suits practical needs and compels judges to be punctual.

II. Proposed Concurrent Resolutions for the Ministry of Justice Budget:

1. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》An education committee shall be established to plan and design the curriculum of the Judges and Prosecutors Training Institute, composed of scholars, senior judges, prosecutors, members of the legal profession, and impartial members of society.

   Explanation:
   The curriculum of the Judges and Prosecutors Training Institute, overseen by the Ministry of Justice, involves the training of judicial personnel and has a profound impact on the quality of judicial development. Therefore, it should not be monopolized solely by the judicial administration system; instead, an education committee should be established to plan and design it, with invitations extended to scholars, senior judges, prosecutors, members of the legal profession, and impartial members of society to join, so as to ensure the perfection of legal vocational training.

2. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall submit an improvement plan within six months regarding the problem of prosecutors being overburdened with cases, through measures such as increasing staffing, reducing staffing in high prosecutors offices, readjusting manpower allocations, exercising review power over case filings by police and investigative units, comprehensively reviewing non-prosecutorial duties, and reducing unnecessary interrogation rooms.

   Explanation:
   The problem of prosecutors being overburdened with cases has a long history. The Ministry of Justice should comprehensively review the core bottlenecks of prosecutors' workloads, such as excessive personnel allocated to high prosecutors offices, the need to readjust manpower allocations, how to increase prosecutor staffing, how to handle cases indiscriminately transferred by police and investigative units (such as incorporating prosecutors' case-filing review power during legal amendments), reducing unnecessary interrogation rooms, and comprehensively reviewing non-prosecutorial duties.

3. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall propose methods within six months to soundly establish the prosecutor personnel review and assignment system.

   Explanation:
   The prosecutor personnel review and assignment system is imperfect. The personnel review committee adopts an indirect election system, which is far removed from the spirit of self-governance and easily triggers backlash from grassroots judicial personnel. The Ministry of Justice shall propose methods within six months to soundly establish the prosecutor personnel review and assignment system.

4. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall formulate a timetable within six months for the comprehensive implementation of prosecutors attending court, and shall pilot starting immediately that cases involving offenses carrying a minimum sentence of five years or more of imprisonment must have the original handling prosecutor attend court throughout the trial to present arguments.

   Explanation:
   The failure of prosecutors to genuinely attend court to present arguments and thoroughly implement public prosecution easily causes judges to play the role of the prosecutor, thereby resurrecting the inquisitorial system. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice shall formulate a timetable within six months for the comprehensive implementation of prosecutors attending court to present arguments, and shall pilot starting immediately for major cases involving offenses carrying a minimum sentence of five years or more of imprisonment that the original handling prosecutor attend court throughout the trial to present arguments, so as to implement the adversarial trial system.

5. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall jointly formulate measures for centralized trials with the Judicial Yuan within six months.

   Explanation:
   To implement centralized trials, the Ministry of Justice shall jointly discuss specific plans with the Judicial Yuan within six months on how to comprehensively implement them, and conduct pilot programs targeting major cases.

6. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall formulate a plan within six months to improve forensic pathologists' compensation and recruit forensic pathology talent.

   Explanation:
   To strengthen scientific case investigation, frontline evidence-collection work must be strengthened. Current criminal investigation practice severely lacks forensic pathology talent, and the Ministry of Justice should formulate concrete plans within six months to improve forensic pathologists' compensation and recruit forensic pathology talent.

7. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order prohibiting prosecutors nationwide from holding press conferences or making public statements regarding specific case facts or specific suspected targets during investigations.

   Explanation:
   To ensure the principle of non-publicity of criminal investigations and correct the current inappropriate situation where prosecutors readily make public statements explaining specific case facts and pointing to suspected individuals, the Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order prohibiting prosecutors nationwide from holding press conferences or making public statements regarding specific case facts or specific suspected targets during investigations, so as to ensure the non-publicity of investigations and protect the human rights of criminal suspects.

8. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to prosecutors nationwide that when a detained defendant is borrowed for interrogation by police or investigative units, if they have defense counsel, defense counsel shall be notified 24 hours prior to the interrogation.

   Explanation:
   The Code of Criminal Procedure expressly provides that defense counsel may be appointed during investigations; however, currently when police and investigative units borrow detained defendants for interrogation, they often fail to notify defense counsel, or notify them just as the interrogation is about to begin, making it practically very difficult for defense counsel to be present. To enable defense counsel to effectively perform their duties of protecting the human rights of defendants, police and investigative units shall notify defense counsel 24 hours prior to interrogation when borrowing a defendant for questioning.

III. Proposed Concurrent Resolutions for the Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice Budget:

1. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》Therefore, the Ministry of Justice shall amend relevant methods for calculating Investigation Bureau case-handling performance, stipulating that case-handling scores for investigators may only be calculated once the defendant is found guilty in a first-instance judgment.

   Explanation:
   Currently, the calculation of case-handling performance for Investigation Bureau investigators is based on the criminal facts and legal provisions listed in the indictments of local prosecutors offices. This frequently causes the phenomenon of indiscriminate transfers where minor cases become major cases and major cases become severe cases, needlessly creating burdens for prosecutors and courts and severely harming the human rights of criminal suspects. In particular, the practice by some investigative units of advancing scoring upon detaining a defendant is tantamount to encouraging detention and is extremely unreasonable. To avoid the phenomenon of indiscriminate transfers, the Ministry of Justice should comprehensively review the case-handling performance calculation methods of investigative units at all levels, prohibiting the calculation of performance upon indictment, and permitting scores to be calculated only upon a first-instance guilty judgment.

2. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Investigation Bureau, Ministry of Justice shall incorporate principles of "identification" (e.g., identification should be limited to selective identification rather than single-subject identification or repeated identification; identification procedures should be preserved, etc.) into the case-handling guidelines for frontline investigators.

   Explanation:
   Identification should be limited to selective identification rather than single-subject identification or repeated identification, and identification procedures should be preserved. This is universally recognized by advanced nations and the academic community of criminal procedure law, yet it is completely absent from the case-handling guidelines of our grassroots investigators, and single-subject and repeated identifications occur repeatedly. To prompt grassroots investigators to correctly apply identification as an investigative method and prevent wrongful framing through mistaken identification, the Ministry of Justice should incorporate identification case-handling principles into the case-handling guidelines of frontline investigators.

3. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall submit a timetable within six months for strengthening scientific investigation equipment and in-service personnel training.

   Explanation:
   To ensure the discovery of criminal truth, the scientific investigation equipment of frontline investigators urgently needs to be strengthened. The Ministry of Justice should comprehensively review the case-handling equipment and in-service training of current grassroots investigators within six months and submit a concrete timetable.

4. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》Investigative unit case handling shall be audio and video recorded throughout, starting from the time the interrogated person arrives until their departure.

   Explanation:
   To prevent the criticized problems of torture and coerced confessions from occurring, investigative units handling cases shall audio and video record the entire process from the time the interrogated person arrives until their departure.

5. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to police and investigative personnel nationwide that upon arresting or apprehending criminal suspects, they shall first read aloud relevant rights, including the right to appoint defense counsel, that statements made will become part of the evidence, that silence cannot be used to infer guilt, and that only voluntary confessions may be used as evidence.

   Explanation:
   To enable criminal suspects to understand their rights when arrested or apprehended, the Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative personnel nationwide instructing them, upon arresting or apprehending criminal suspects, to first read aloud the rights under Article 245 of the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the right to appoint defense counsel, Article 156 regarding the voluntariness of confessions and that silence cannot be used to infer guilt, and to make them understand that their words will become evidence.

6. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative personnel nationwide to carry their assigned hoods and, upon arresting or apprehending criminal suspects, make hoods available for them to wear upon request to avoid exposing their identity.

   Explanation:
   To ensure the principle of non-publicity of investigations and the protection of criminal suspects' human rights, the Ministry of Justice shall manufacture hoods and have investigative personnel performing arrest and apprehension duties carry them, allowing suspects to choose whether or not to wear a hood upon arrest or apprehension in order to safeguard their human rights.

7. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to police and investigative personnel nationwide that they shall not announce "cases solved" to the outside during investigations, nor shall they make public specific case facts and specific suspected targets.

   Explanation:
   To ensure the principle of non-publicity of criminal investigations and correct the current inappropriate situation where investigative personnel readily make public statements explaining specific case facts and pointing to suspected individuals, the Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order prohibiting investigative personnel nationwide from holding press conferences or making public statements regarding specific case facts or specific suspected targets during investigations, so as to ensure the non-publicity of investigations and protect the human rights of criminal suspects.

8. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative units nationwide that when interrogating defendants, criminal suspects, or related parties, continuous interrogation shall not exceed three hours, and interrogated persons shall be given adequate rest.

   Explanation:
   To avoid exhausting interrogations that harm the human rights of interrogated persons and further impede the discovery of criminal truth, the Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative units nationwide that when interrogating defendants, criminal suspects, or related parties, continuous interrogation shall not exceed three hours, and interrogated persons shall be given adequate rest.

9. 《Proposed Concurrent Resolution Text》The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative units nationwide that defense counsel shall not be restricted from conversing with defendants either before or after interrogations.

   Explanation:
   Defense counsel exercises the right to defense in accordance with the law and should not be improperly restricted by investigative units. The Ministry of Justice shall issue a general order to investigative units nationwide prohibiting any restrictions on defense counsel conversing with defendants either before or after interrogations.