Sidelights | Are Grand Justices Detached from Reality? How Are Constitutional Litigation and Human Rights Protection Possible?

The Mysterious Veil of the Constitution and the Grand Justices

In the public imagination, the Constitution often seems very far removed from our daily lives, and "Grand Justices" appear to be aloof and unreachable figures. Yet, in reality, many of Taiwan's crucial human rights protection interpretations stem from the constitutional interpretation rulings of the Grand Justices! In this session, we invited Wang Ting-yü, a well-known lecturer and former chief editor of the "Plain Law Movement" website, to provide an in-depth analysis and lift the veil of mystery surrounding the "Constitution and the Grand Justices."

At the very beginning of the lecture, the speaker posed a vivid and engaging question: "Did you know that the monthly salary for a Grand Justice reaches as high as 200,000 NTD? What on earth are they busy with?" Through this question, the audience was guided to further ponder:

“What exactly do the duties and powers of the Grand Justices entail? What kind of responsibilities and missions do they shoulder? And how do these seemingly esoteric constitutional interpretation results affect the lives and rights of every single one of us?”

The Appointment System and Powers of the Grand Justices

Discussing the Grand Justices requires starting with how they come to office and what their work entails. Grand Justices are nominated by the President and appointed with the consent of the Legislative Yuan. Whether they possess the proper qualifications and suitability is vetted by the legislators based on their statutory powers.
Various Grand Justice interpretations and constitutional judgments are essentially proof of the Grand Justices' work, achieving judicial fairness and justice by striking down unreasonable regulations—a power vested in the Grand Justices by the Constitution. Laws have a hierarchy, which can be likened to a pyramid: the Constitution is at the very top, followed by statutes, and finally administrative orders. From this, we can see that the Constitution serves as the guiding benchmark for all laws, and Grand Justices enjoy a position of trust under the Constitution, entrusted with the heavy responsibility of interpreting it.

The Grand Justices and Human Rights Protection

What have the Grand Justices actually accomplished? Let us look back through the history of Taiwan's democratic constitutional development. For example, Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 261 mandated that the first-term central parliamentary representatives must terminate the exercise of their duties by the end of 1991 and that a full reelection of central parliamentary representatives be held, thereby ending the chaos of the "eternal parliament."