The Establishment of the Judicial Reform Foundation

The founding of the Judicial Reform Foundation traces back to the 1994 appointment of Shih Ch'i-yang as President of the Judicial Yuan. At the time, President Lee Teng-hui tasked President Shih with reforming the judiciary, and Shih established the Judicial Reform Committee shortly after taking office. Lin Min-sheng was then the President of the Taiwan Bar Association. Before discussing this, the history of the Taipei Bar Association must be mentioned. Back then, the Taipei Bar Association was dominated by older lawyers who were mostly Mainlanders. They engaged in fierce turf wars with young lawyers seeking reform; meetings frequently descended into brawls where piles of people would stack on top of one another, and instances of people literally eating meeting minutes on the spot to destroy evidence were commonplace.

At that time, the young lawyers eager to reform the Taipei Bar Association formed a study group, convened by attorney Huang Jui-ming, with attorney Ku Li-hsiung serving as deputy convener. They contacted me, hoping I would run for President of the Taipei Bar Association. At the time, I felt it wasn't yet my time to take on the presidency, but offered to find someone for them, and so I approached attorney Lin Min-sheng. The reasons for considering attorney Lin Min-sheng then were, first, his upright character—moral integrity was a crucial consideration; second, his seniority, as he was about five or six law classes senior to me; additionally, he was accomplished in his career, running a very successful, sole-proprietorship law firm, meaning he had the resources and energy to get things done; and his reputation was also quite good. When I contacted attorney Lin, as soon as he heard about it, he said that having practiced law for thirty years, he had never bothered with bar association affairs, and now he needed to consult other good friends in the legal community first. About a week later, attorney Lin contacted me, saying that his friends in the legal community had all advised him "not to muddy these waters" and just focus on being a good lawyer. Later, attorney Lin Min-sheng treated us to a meal at the Ambassador Hotel to express his apologies. Consequently, I continued to consider other candidates. However, after much deliberation, I still believed attorney Lin was the most ideal candidate and decided I had to enlist him. Having made this decision, I treated him to a meal once more and invited the young lawyers along as well. Attorney Lin Min-sheng finally indicated that he was willing to serve as the convener of the working group and give it a try—since he was an entrepreneur, he was unwilling to fight a battle without a chance of winning and needed to understand the situation first.

Starting the next day, he began meeting with these young people, gathering every week or two to understand the state of the Taipei Bar Association. I participated at the time as well. Attorney Lin Min-sheng used computer analysis, inputting all lawyer data into a computer, and grew more and more enthusiastic as the work progressed. Initially, I had only hoped to secure a majority of the seats. But one day when I asked him, he said it would be 38 to 0, meaning we would sweep every single seat. When I heard that, I thought it was a fairy tale, but when the ballots were counted, it truly turned out to be 38 to 0. This marked the beginning of the reform faction's governance in the Taipei Bar Association and laid the foundation for its growth. After attorney Lin Min-sheng participated in judicial reform, his career truly transformed. Previously, he was a legal entrepreneur; although highly successful in his career, he was not very prominent in society. Afterward, however, he made immense contributions to Taiwan's democratization, not only making generous financial donations but later being elected President of the Taiwan Bar Association, leading the legal community to continue engaging in reform.

Later on, we arrived at the aforementioned National Judicial Reform Conference. The legal community secured four slots, and the Taiwan Bar Association also formed an internal committee to help formulate proposals. Attorney Lin Min-sheng once asked President Shih Ch'i-yang whether the judicial reform was "for real," to which he replied that it was indeed for real—a statement that later became famous. The Taiwan Bar Association established a Judicial Reform Committee at that time, with myself as chairperson and attorney Lin Yung-sung as vice chairperson. Around October 1994, the Taiwan Bar Association resolved that I should serve as convener and Lin Yung-sung as deputy convener, along with other colleagues interested in pursuing judicial reform, to prepare for another organization. We began preparations on November 9. At the time, we considered whether to adopt a foundation (財團法人) or an association (社團法人) as our organizational form. Eventually, we decided on a foundation because the board of directors and supervisors changes less frequently, allowing our ideals to be carried through consistently. However, to establish a foundation, the regulations at the time required raising 10 million NTD. The difficulty we faced in fundraising back then was that we had no major corporations or tycoons supporting us—they considered us to be anti-authoritarian. Relying on small-amount donations from all sectors of society, the Judicial Reform Foundation only managed to raise a little over 5 million NTD after a year. Later, on December 13, 1996, we held our first fundraising dinner, the "Toward 1997 Fundraising Dinner." It was quite successful, which allowed the foundation to be officially established. At the time, the entire operation was spearheaded by myself and attorney Lin Yung-sung, while attorney Lin Min-sheng showed deep concern; the initial office was located at attorney Lin Yung-sung's law firm, and operations later continued at attorney Lin Min-sheng's law firm until we had our own official office.

However, the official establishment of the Judicial Reform Foundation is reckoned from its formal public announcement on November 5, 1995, because as soon as we announced our establishment, we also began operations. At the inception of the preparatory committee, it was divided into three committees: the Action Committee, the Research Committee, and the Evaluation Committee. In addition, a "Judicial Reform Blueprint Group" was established, convened by attorney Kao Jui-cheng. After three years of research, it was officially published in 1999. The judicial reform promoted by the Judicial Reform Foundation over the past decade has basically been driven with the "Judicial Reform Blueprint" as its direction. Of course, times and circumstances have changed, leading to some differences in actual implementation, but the direction has largely remained unchanged.