Judicial Yuan President Opposes Reform and Holds President Tsai Ing-wen Hostage ~ Public Press Conference Demanding a Public Debate with President Hsu Tsung-li

This Alliance presented the draft provisions for the concurrent trial of lay participation and jury systems to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus in the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday (the 10th) at 19:00, successfully addressing the legislative-technical concerns raised by the Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice, demonstrating the feasibility of running both systems concurrently. The DPP caucus stated that it will promptly evaluate and discuss the civil-society draft before publicly clarifying the party's stance. Meanwhile, the whips of the three opposition parties—the Kuomintang, the Taiwan People's Party, and the New Power Party—have publicly declared that regarding the crucial reform of adopting either the jury or lay participation system for the Citizen Judges Act, if the ruling and opposition parties fail to reach a consensus on trying both systems concurrently, the matter should not be included in the agenda of the Legislative Yuan's extraordinary session scheduled for late June.

On March 16 this year, during the "Half-Year Report on the National-Level Judicial Reform Conference," Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tsung-li personally announced that only the lay participation system would be piloted, and further reduced the scope of applicable cases from 1,200 to under 600. President Hsu's attitude—disregarding the calls from the Judicial Reform National-Level Conference in support of jury reform and overturning his own political commitment to instruct former Secretary-General Lu Ta-lu to negotiate the concurrent trial of both systems with civil society—has triggered strong public backlash. As the highest judicial political official, it is President Hsu's inescapable responsibility to personally respond to the doubts raised by civil society and the opposition parties.

This Alliance demands that President Hsu Tsung-li engage in a public debate with civil-society representatives to defend his policy of promoting the lay participation system, rather than hiding in the ivory tower of the Judicial Yuan to pull strings behind the scenes, leaving President Tsai Ing-wen to face public opinion alone, effectively taking her hostage to the Judicial Yuan's policies.

This Alliance considers the topics that should be openly debated to be as follows:

1. Between the jury system and the lay participation system, which one will solve the three major maladies of the judiciary (corruption, dinosaur judges, and political intervention)?
2. Between the jury system and the lay participation system, which one can ensure trial accuracy and prevent wrongful convictions? Can the Judicial Yuan choose to pilot only the lay participation system?
3. Is the concurrent trial of jury and lay participation systems feasible?
4. Will the public trust trials under the jury system or the lay participation system?

We further demand that the Judicial Yuan hold a public debate within two weeks to implement President Tsai Ing-wen's policy that judicial reform must maintain continuous communication with society.

Attendees

Lin Yung-sung, Attorney / Chairman of the Judicial Reform Foundation (Convener)
Cheng Wen-lung, Attorney / Founding Chairman of the Taiwan Association for Jury System (Convener)
Chang Ching, Attorney / Member of the Judicial Reform National-Level Conference
(Other attendees to be confirmed)

Contact Persons

Hsiao I-min / Office Director, Judicial Reform Foundation
Lin Ping-chuan / Deputy Secretary-General, Taiwan Association for Jury System