Internship Reflection: How to Integrate the Element of "Humanity" into Our Judiciary

Ever since I applied for the internship at the JRF, I wrote in my application that I hoped to see how "human" elements are incorporated into reform within the organization, and to train my expression skills. During the brief one-month winter vacation, I had to juggle both the internship and project applications, but I cherished every moment of my internship at the JRF and threw myself into learning as much as possible.

The main tasks for the Legal and Policy Department intern included revising and performing mock trial scripts, taking on case-related issues, organizing questions to report to supervisors, and finally, drafting a briefing paper for the JRF's meeting with the President and the Premier before the end of the internship.

Revising scripts was indeed a meticulous task, not as bustling as the cases handled by the Case Action Department, but reviewing 15 scripts truly took a great deal of effort. From carefully examining the scripts, picking out logical flaws and legal ambiguities to discuss with other peers, and appropriately adjusting the difficulty, every script featured a different criminal case. I believe the challenge for me was not the legal application and interpretation of those cases, but rather how to accurately translate my thoughts into language and express them clearly. My professor often tells me that expression is the way I externalize what I have learned. I still need some time to translate my thoughts into language and express them, but there was ample space for training in the Legal and Policy Department, and my peers were willing to wait for me to speak. Although there is still room for improvement, the time I spend thinking has gradually shortened.

I remember during a courtroom observation organized by the JRF, I met a lawyer who asked me why I came to observe the court and whether I wanted to pursue a career as a lawyer, judge, or prosecutor. I told him that my expression skills were poor and I might not be able to clearly articulate things to the parties involved or the court right away. However, the lawyer told me that my expression depends on my confidence, and my confidence depends on my preparation—meaning that with a solid foundation, one can naturally express themselves smoothly. Of course, this also involves logical training to enhance one's reaction time. That five-minute conversation was, to me, a profound lesson learned from that courtroom observation.

Furthermore, the briefing paper prepared a few days before the end of the internship for the meeting with the President and the Premier also showed me how the JRF incorporates the "human" element into judicial reform. The content of the briefing covered continuing and implementing the coalition platform meetings for the resolutions of the Nationales Judicial Reform Conference, promoting the citizen participation in criminal trials system, enhancing forensic science, and many other recommendations for judicial reform. None of these could be separated from the core of "humanity"—making justice more accessible to the people, breathing new life into tangled and deeply rooted laws, and increasing public trust in the judiciary. Because non-legal professionals participated in the National Judicial Reform Conference, the dialogue throughout the conference became much more grounded in reality, which I believe is an urgent priority for current judicial reform.

During my days at the JRF, I often had discussions with my team members, and everyone was willing to maintain an open mind to listen to different ideas and suggestions. For various issues, everyone was willing to apply what they had learned to propose relevant legal ideas. Listening to others' ideas, absorbing them, and then translating them into writing or speech was something I continuously practiced while at the JRF. Aside from participating in my department's discussions, I also saw how the JRF quietly toiled away on certain issues without forgetting their original legal intentions. Although their contributions do not directly appear in textbooks, whenever legal amendments come closer to the people, their presence and painstaking efforts are reflected there to varying degrees. Learning law does not rely solely on books; only by trying to engage with practical reality and maintaining a willingness to learn can one gain more experience. Finally, the judiciary is the line of defense protecting the rights of the people. Only "humans" can drive the operation of the judiciary, and only "humans" can embody the value of justice. At the JRF, the judicial reform I learned about is precisely how to integrate the element of "humanity" into our judiciary.