2016 Work Report

I. Legislative Promotion and Institutional Reform

1. Prosecutorial and Police System Reform

   1. Promote the Organizational Act of the Prosecutors Office and the Prosecutors Act to implement "separation of the judiciary and the prosecution" and bring transparency to the "unity of the prosecution system."
   2. Police system reform: Research fundamental institutional solutions to police misconduct and abuse of power in handling social movement events. Enhance the quality of investigations and normalize the relationship between prosecutors and the police.

2. Continual Promotion of Amendments to the Judges Act

   1. The Judges Act restricts citizens' right to directly request the evaluation of judges and prosecutors, requiring requests to be filed through organizations, yet fails to grant organizations appropriate powers to investigate and inspect case files and evidence. This renders individual case evaluations ineffective, and we will continue to monitor and promote amendments to require legal reform.
   2. The statute of limitations for requesting individual case evaluations under the Judges Act is far shorter than that of the Civil Servants Discipline Act, causing a large number of cases to be excluded from evaluation due to expiration, thus undermining the effectiveness of individual case evaluations. We will continue our oversight and critique, demanding legal amendments.

3. Promoting Public Participation in Trials

   1. Continue to promote the civil society's counter-proposal bill, the "Criminal Trials Act with Citizen Participation," while opposing the Judicial Yuan's version of the "angsai-sei (participatory trial system)."
   2. Analyze and draft various bills and supporting measures required for the "system of public participation in trials."
   3. Expand "mock jury trial" activities nationwide to collect empirical data and materials for the aforementioned work while promoting the "system of public participation in trials."

4. Further Reform of the New Criminal Procedure System

   1. In response to the promotion of the "Criminal Trials Act with Citizen Participation," discuss amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure regarding the principle of a single indictment.
   2. In response to the Judicial Yuan's proposed amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure in the Legislative Yuan, the Foundation has proposed a civil society counter-bill and will continue to promote it.

5. Expert Testimony System Reform

   1. Collect individual cases involving flawed expert testimony and petition the Control Yuan, using flaws identified in individual cases to highlight systemic deficiencies.
   2. Establish a Judicial Expert Testimony Commission through legislative amendments to help various scientific fields involved in the judicial system establish standard operating procedures (SOPs) for their respective evaluation processes.

6. Promoting the "National Judicial Reform Movement" Project

   1. The goal of the National Judicial Reform Movement is to establish a "permanent judicial reform mechanism" that involves the public and is responsive to the people.
   2. The characteristics of the National Judicial Reform Movement are "expanded participation," "openness and transparency," and "rule of law education."
   3. The project is divided into three stages: the first stage collects "judicial problems" perceived by the public from different perspectives and experiences; the second stage analyzes the potential "root causes" behind the collected judicial problems; and the third stage formulates "solutions," listing the pros and cons of various remedies one by one, along with potential operational difficulties and supporting measures, to make the decision-making process for these solutions more comprehensive and thorough.

II. Case Work

1. Expanding Complaint Center Services to Taichung and Kaohsiung

   1. The Taipei Office will continue to accept public grievance cases, including reports against incompetent judges and prosecutors and the rescue of wrongful convictions.
   2. Establish the Central Office, cooperating with local lawyers and schools to accept grievance cases, jointly organize activities, assist with individual cases, and gradually integrate local resources in central and southern regions.

2. Ongoing Social Movement Litigation Cases (Private Prosecution, Defense)

3. Rescue of Major Miscarriages of Justice

   1. The Hsl Tzu-chiang (徐自強) Case:
      • Acquitted in the ninth retrial of the criminal proceedings; will continue to monitor subsequent developments.
   2. The Chiang Kuo-ching (江國慶) Case:
      • Criminal accountability: The Taipei District Prosecutors Office has issued a third non-prosecution disposition; will continue to monitor the investigation progress.
      • Civil compensation litigation: The first instance has been adjudicated and is currently pending in the second instance; will continue to conduct court observations.
   3. The Chiou Ho-shun (邱和順) Case: Continue to mobilize volunteers for weekly visits and assist the legal team in filing for retrials, constitutional interpretations, and other rescue actions.
   4. The Su Chien-ho (蘇建和) Case: Acquitted with finality; subsequent exchange plans will be carried out, such as making all relevant archives public and holding seminars.

III. Expanding Organizational Volunteer Work

1. Court Observation

   1. Continue to recruit volunteers and interns, cooperate with major universities and senior high schools to conduct national court observation service-learning courses, and write observation reports.
   2. Conduct more in-depth professional court observations.
   3. Build the Judicial Sunshine Net along with a mobile app capable of real-time reporting, equipped with rigorous screening and anti-counterfeiting mechanisms. Once information is accumulated and collected, verify it with relevant authorities, requesting self-discipline or proposing external discipline. This will enrich observations of courts and prosecutors' offices to compensate for the long-standing lack of sufficient manpower to conduct national, comprehensive court observations, and the inability to observe inside investigative courtrooms.

2. Regular Volunteer Activities

   1. Hold summer student camps to allow the seeds of judicial reform to take root in various colleges and universities.
   2. Hold periodic or national tour lectures: Collaborate with volunteers to hold at least 12 tour lectures within a year to popularize the concept of the rule of law.
   3. Cooperate with colleges and universities such as National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, Soochow University, Chinese Culture University, National Taipei University, Aletheia University, Chung Yuan Christian University, Providence University, and National University of Kaohsiung to provide internship courses, offering students opportunities to experience judicial settings firsthand and participate in judicial reform.

3. Volunteer Program of the Social Movement Pro Bono Lawyer Platform

   1. Continue to operate the pro bono assistant team.
   2. Lawyer Empowerment: Compile lawyers' valuable experiences in accompanying interrogations and conducting litigation during social movements into written publications, coupled with lawyer empowerment training sessions inviting experienced lawyers to participate in seminars, allowing more lawyers to get involved and safeguarding clients' basic rights in litigation.
   3. Expand Volunteer Participation: Recruit volunteers to participate in the pro bono lawyer team platform, enabling the pro bono lawyer platform to operate actively and inject more vitality into future legal public interest practices.

IV. Innovation and Evolution of the JRF Administrative Team

1. CiviCRM System Construction

   • Build the CiviCRM volunteer system. Through strategic planning and regular reviews, establish and revise volunteer activities and training courses to cultivate various types of core volunteers, build an operational model for the volunteer organization, and thereby promote mutual exchange among volunteers.
   • Integrate volunteers, activities, donors, and e-newsletter functions through the construction of the CiviCRM system for systematic and segmented management.

2. 20 Years of Judicial Reform "Digital Archives"

   • Since its establishment in November 1995, the Judicial Reform Foundation has accumulated a substantial volume of relevant documents and materials over the past 20 years. These have now been digitized, and website construction has begun in preparation for launch.

3. Enhancing Publicity and Publication through Electronic Media and the Internet

   • Continuously update our website.
   • Regularly send out e-newsletters.

V. Coalition Work

• Continue to participate in the "Taiwan Association to End the Death Penalty," "Legal Aid Support Alliance," "Covenants Watch," and the "Prison Reform Alliance."

VI. Legal Ethics Education Center

• Regularly hold reading groups and continue the second stage of the book publication project to publish books related to the sociology of law.