The Maxim of Due Process: The More Urgent, the More It Must Be Respected

Legitimacy Lies in Life or Death

In this confrontation, there is a consensus: the Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement concerns the life or death of Taiwan.

Because it concerns life or death, one side insists that the life-saving procedure already underway cannot be abandoned and must continue without interruption. Because it concerns life or death, the other side insists that the ongoing procedure must be temporarily suspended and examined to determine whether what is already underway is a life-saving or life-harming procedure.

Since it is a life-saving prescription, it naturally must take effect immediately and be taken right away; since it may be a lethal prescription, the prescription must naturally be seized and sent away for testing. Therefore, Director Wang Hsiao-ti said that fortunately, the masters occupied the Legislative Yuan chamber; otherwise, they might have been forced to take the lethal prescription.

Is there any way to freeze the Services Trade Agreement, which has already been submitted to the Yuan meeting for record, or, taking a step back, is to be voted on at the Yuan meeting? Is preventing the Legislative Yuan meeting from taking place not the only way? There may be more than one way to stop legislators from exercising their duties, and more than one way to block them from entering the legislative chamber. Compared to restricting the physical liberty of legislators, is controlling the legislative space not a less intrusive method?

One does not need to be a legal expert to understand this logic. Therefore, not only those who took to Ketagalan Boulevard, those domestically who did not go to Ketagalan Boulevard, student groups in 17 countries overseas voicing their support, but also many foreign media outlets have given positive responses.

As the March 18 Student Movement continues, the more it is insisted that the ongoing agreement procedure cannot be reviewed, the more it proves how much of a last resort, and how necessary, it is to assert oneself as a rights subject by occupying the chamber of the Legislative Yuan. The longer the students hold out in the legislative chamber, the higher the legitimacy of the students occupying the chamber becomes. Because having forced themselves to sleep on the streets for so long, and having confined themselves within the chamber, losing their freedom for so long, still could not stop the procedure from proceeding without the participation of procedural subjects—then if they had initially only shouted in protest or staged a sit-in outside the chamber, it is clearly absolutely impossible that they could have stopped the suspected poison from being swallowed. Once in court, there are many factual matters that can be argued! The Closure-Threatened Workers case, the Dapu incident, the Hung Chung-chiu case, the dual hikes in oil and electricity prices, US beef...

Controlling the chamber actually has only achieved preliminary results, because another chamber can always be established elsewhere. When controlling the chamber is still not enough to prevent the potential poison from being swallowed, would it not intensify even harsher forms of protest?

To publicize the Services Trade Agreement as a matter concerning the life or death of Taiwan, and to promote it as a critical point of no retreat, is that not forcing people into a life-or-death struggle? And if signing the Services Trade Agreement is really not that serious, not to the point of national survival, then why insist upon it? Since the representatives of public authority insist on it, the people have no choice but to believe them and insist as well!

The Maxim of Due Process of Law

The maxim of due process of law: The more urgent and critical the situation, the more one must abide by due process, and only by doing so can one survive. Because due process exists precisely to prevent mistakes during moments of emergency. Three years ago, the National Taiwan University Hospital organ transplant HIV mix-up incident was precisely such a case.

Since the Services Trade Agreement concerns Taiwan's survival, no compromises can be made on due process. Once due process is violated, a ground for correction is created. What is the procedure to correct this improper procedure? If it is an internal procedure of the Legislative Yuan, might makes right; however it is voted on, whatever the majority deems right is considered right. There is simply no possibility of correction. The only thing that can transcend the internal procedures of the Legislative Yuan is the Grand Justices' constitutional interpretation procedure. However, to become the object of a constitutional interpretation, there must be a resolution act that has already produced general external legal effect. The resolution acts from the Internal Administration Committee to the plenary session are based on the internal rules of the Legislative Yuan and can only produce internal procedural effects within the Legislative Yuan. If there are flaws, they can only be handled through self-governing rules. Therefore, it is impossible to petition for a constitutional interpretation targeting this procedural act. And the handling method based on self-governing rules falls back once more into the circular reasoning of the internal majority vote.

Since the existing legal system provides no way to correct this error, the people have no choice but to correct it themselves. The error is this: the representatives are incapable of lawfully executing the mission authorized by the people.

Since the representatives can no longer fulfill their duties in accordance with the people's will, the people must take matters into their own hands. This is the reason why the people entered the parliament to exercise direct democracy. And asserting oneself as a procedural subject against state public authority is precisely the fundamental requirement of the principle of due process of law.

Are Students' Identities Special?

Students' identities are not special; they merely represent a vulnerable group that is unarmed, with ears but no voice. They possess neither the sword of physical force nor the sword of knowledge. They are usually humble and soft-spoken, lacking strength to display or chips to bargain with. Even if they speak loudly, no one hears them, and they are usually not looked at with respect.

Therefore, some believe they can lecture them on their weak ideology; therefore, some believe they can mock them for not yet being able to support themselves, asking by what right they call themselves the people and demanding that they shut up.

Yet precisely because they inevitably end up being arbitrarily lectured to and inevitably suffer the humiliation of not being self-sufficient, they become a vulnerable group that the Constitution must specially protect. Demanding that those who cannot yet support themselves shut up happens to run counter to the constitutional original intent of protecting the vulnerable.

Of course they know the best choice is to go home and back to school to enrich themselves and strengthen their competitiveness, but they have no best choice; they only have the worst choice. They have no glorious retreat; they only need to return home safely. The key to opening the door and letting them come out safely lies in the hands of those who wield the state apparatus.