Workshop | Campus Citizen-Judge Mock Trial Train-the-Trainer Workshop (Hsinchu)
Last edited: 2026-08-29
With the Citizen Judges Act scheduled to take effect in 2023, JRF has redesigned its Campus Citizen-Judge Mock Trial Program with a new script and new teaching materials. We invite interested attorneys and educators to learn with us and become future trainers for the program.
The revised campus mock trial is centered on public participation in criminal trials and designed around students as active learners. Those are the defining features of the program.
The curriculum team has adapted a criminal case into a short courtroom drama. Students work in groups: one group takes the roles of citizen judges, prosecutors, defense counsel, defendant, and witnesses, while another serves as shadow deliberators. During the proceeding, professional judges, citizen judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel each perform their legal roles, and witnesses are subject to cross-examination. During deliberation, students must apply the presumption of innocence and learn why adjudication must be based on evidence. The script introduces basic legal concepts through direct experience, while the facilitator's discussion explains the importance of fundamental criminal-trial principles and emphasizes procedural fairness and neutrality.
Civic rule-of-law education and public participation in trials reinforce one another. As the Citizen Judges Act takes effect, rule-of-law education becomes even more important for citizens who may one day sit on the bench. In addition to monitoring policy and implementation from a civil-society perspective, JRF will continue revising mock-trial teaching materials and organizing train-the-trainer workshops and case discussions to help safeguard the quality of the new system.
We warmly invite legal professionals and educators to join this workshop as partners and later bring the experiential curriculum into schools, helping more students understand basic legal concepts and the meaning of public participation in adjudication through mock-trial practice.
Time
Venue
Speakers
Lin Tzu-Cheng / Attorney; Standing Executive Committee Member, Judicial Reform Foundation
Hsu Min-Hsien / Attorney; Standing Director, Hsinchu Bar Association
Chen Chih-Ning / Attorney; Director, Hsinchu Bar Association
Lin Chun-Ju / Attorney; Director, Law and Policy Department, Judicial Reform Foundation
Hsiao Wei-Shan / Civics and Society Teacher, Taichung Municipal Wen-Hua Senior High School
Schedule
| Time | Program | Speaker |
| 1:45 p.m. | Check-in and Group Assignment | Judicial Reform Foundation |
| 2:00 p.m. | Opening Remarks and Program Introduction | Hsu Min-Hsien |
| 2:05 p.m. | Introduction to the Citizen-Judge System and Available Resources | Lin Chun-Ju |
| 2:25 p.m. | Mock-Trial Script Experience and Discussion | Lin Tzu-Cheng |
| 3:40 p.m. | Break | |
| 3:50 p.m. | How to Facilitate a Mock Trial Sharing Experience in Campus Rule-of-Law Education |
Lin Tzu-Cheng Hsu Min-Hsien Hsiao Wei-Shan |
| 4:40 p.m. | General Discussion | Chen Chih-Ning Wang Chen-Yun / Judicial Reform Foundation Pan Pei-Chen / Judicial Reform Foundation |
| 5:00 p.m. | Adjournment |
Organizers
Hsinchu Bar Association
This article is an AI-generated translation of the original Chinese text. In the event of any discrepancy, the Chinese version shall prevail.