The Path of Ordinary People: JRF's 30th Anniversary Person-Interview Special Issue

Foreword

This year marks both my thirtieth year of involvement with the Judicial Reform Foundation (JRF) and my third year as Chairperson.

Over the past three years, people have often asked me: "Does the JRF get involved in too many things?" Yet, elsewhere, someone else will anxiously ask: "Why isn't the JRF speaking out?"

As an organization that does not accept government subsidies and relies solely on private donations to sustain its operations, our resources have always been limited, making it genuinely impossible for us to become involved in everything. However, thirty years of experience have taught me that the most crucial thing for this organization is knowing how to identify the matters that truly matter amid limited resources, devote our greatest attention and efforts to them, and generate meaningful impact.

Beyond our daily judicial reform work—such as case advocacy, legislative monitoring, and legal education across Taiwan—whenever new social issues emerge and the public expects institutional discussion and perspectives, we strive to respond. For instance, how should courtroom live-streaming be conducted? When facing serious cases of sexual offenses against children and youth, how should society exercise oversight and provide protection? How can personal data protection systems be effectively implemented and continually updated to keep pace with changing times? We believe that the JRF must not only respond to the present moment, but also continue to exert a profound influence both domestically and internationally.

Over the past year, we have faced a constitutional crisis arising from the paralysis and subsequent resumption of operations of the Constitutional Court, as well as the prolonged vacancy in the office of the president of the Judicial Yuan. We held seminars, submitted amicus curiae briefs, and worked with the alliance monitoring the nomination of grand justices to hold press conferences and issue statements, all in an effort to safeguard the last line of defense of the constitutional order amid political turbulence.

Facing a volatile domestic and international environment, the JRF will release a new generation of judicial reform blueprints on Judiciary Day next year. We will continue to serve as a force of civil society, speaking out against injustice to safeguard Taiwan's democracy and rule of law and to defend the rights and freedoms of the people.

＿

"Becoming an Ordinary Person" is the main theme of the JRF's 30th-anniversary special exhibition. The significance of this theme is to emphasize that, over the course of thirty years, through the collective bottom-up efforts of many people, the JRF has helped transform what was once an extraordinary and abnormal judicial landscape into the ordinary and normal state of affairs we see today, while continuing to monitor whether the rights that most people now take for granted are truly being realized for every individual. As someone who has participated in the JRF for thirty years, I am delighted to see that more than 1,700 members of the public attended the exhibition in Taipei and Taichung, while more than 30 volunteer attorneys jointly gave lectures and guided tours, demonstrating the vitality of cross-generational cooperation within the JRF.

This collection of interviews commemorating the JRF's 30th anniversary was compiled while senior Secretariat staff member Su Chien-ho—who jokingly describes himself as having been "forced into the profession" because of a wrongful conviction—led younger colleagues in visiting long-time JRF volunteers. In addition to familiar faces such as Attorney Lin Yung-sung and myself, we also interviewed senior figures who once devoted themselves to civil society-led judicial reform, including Professor Chiu Hei-yuan, Attorney Lin Feng-cheng, Attorney Kao Yung-cheng, and Attorney Remington Huang. The transcript of our interview with Attorney John C. Chen from the JRF's 25th anniversary has also been included. People come and go along the path of judicial reform, but every stage of every person's participation has been hard-won. At the close of our 30th anniversary, our staff compiled these writings and accompanied them with a timeline of major milestones in the JRF's history, allowing readers to look back on them together. We hope they can impart some strength and demonstrate that the power to shape history lies in the relentless efforts of civil society.

While compiling these manuscripts, we received the news that our respected former chairperson, Attorney Kao Jui-cheng, had passed away. We hereby express our gratitude for his lifelong contributions to the JRF, judicial reform, and Taiwanese society, and extend our condolences to his family.

Chairperson of the Judicial Reform Foundation

Attorney Huang Hsu-tien

Respectfully

Editor's Note

Since preparations for its establishment began in 1995 and its official registration was completed in 1997, the JRF has been led by successive generations of chairpersons, executive directors, and deputy executive directors, maintaining strong momentum for reform through intergenerational succession.

Most of the content in this special issue was compiled from interview transcripts gathered during preparations for the exhibition. Due to time constraints, we were able to interview only some of our predecessors, and we ask for your understanding that this record is not exhaustive.

Additionally, because the interviews focused primarily on senior participants' memories of the early history of judicial reform, this special issue does not fully reflect another important aspect of the JRF's work over the past five years. In response to concerns raised by younger attorneys and current social developments, the JRF has mobilized considerable energy to promote legislative amendments protecting crime victims. Our gender and digital rule of law teams have also become the groups with the highest participation by pro bono attorneys, while the JRF has become increasingly active in international engagement. Readers interested in these aspects of the JRF's work are welcome to follow our daily updates on our official website and social media platforms.

We have preserved the interview content as much as possible, making only minor adjustments to paragraphing and wording. Because of its considerable length, we chose to publish this special issue electronically. Beyond this electronic publication, as the JRF marks its thirtieth anniversary, we have also become deeply aware of the importance of preserving historical materials. The memories and images of participants are extremely valuable. We are gradually organizing them and establishing an internal database at our office, in the hope that thirty years from now, the younger generation of that era will likewise be able to experience these memories of reform through text, audio, and video.

If you are interested in watching the "Old Stories of Judicial Reform" short videos filmed and edited from the interviews in this special issue, please refer to this [link]. Past historical articles of the JRF are also collected in the Digital Archive Database, the Ssu-Ssu E-Paper Archive Page, and our Traditional Chinese Official Website.

Chairpersons

Lin Min-sheng Term: May 1997 – Sep. 1997

John C. Chen Term: Sep. 1997 – Mar. 1998

Kao Jui-cheng Term: Mar. 1998 – Nov. 2000

John C. Chen Term: Nov. 2000 – Feb. 2007

Remington Huang Term: Feb. 2007 – Feb. 2010

Wellington Koo Term: Feb. 2010 – Feb. 2011

Chiu Hei-yuan Term: Feb. 2011 – Feb. 2015

Lin Yung-sung Term: Feb. 2015 – Dec. 2022

Huang Hsu-tien Term: Jan. 2023 – Present

Executive Directors

Karl Tzan Sep. 1995 – Apr. 1996

Lin Yung-sung May 1996 – 1998 / Deputy Executive Director Fan Xiao-ling

Sue Wang 1998 – May 2002

Shirley Lin May 2002 – Jul. 2004

Kao Yung-cheng Jul. 2004 – Jan. 2007

Lin Feng-cheng Jan. 2007 – Dec. 2013

Kao Jung-chih Jan. 2014 – Dec. 2017 / Deputy Executive Director Chen Yu-fan

Chen Yu-fan Jan. 2018 – Mar. 2019

Lin Yung-sung Apr. 2019 – Dec. 2022

Huang Hsu-tien Jan. 2023 – Dec. 2025 / Deputy Executive Director Lee Ming-ju

Work Team

Attorney John C. Chen 25th Anniversary Interview

Interviews ｜ Miffy Chen, Zheng Ming-yang, Cai Zong-ying

Lead Authors ｜ Zheng Ming-yang, Cai Zong-ying

Editor ｜ Miffy Chen

30th Anniversary Person Interviews

Interviews ｜ Cai Shangheng, Su Chien-ho, Li Zhao-yan

Lead Author ｜ Cai Shangheng

Editors ｜ Lee Ming-ju, Su Chien-ho, Eiley, Xie Jia-zhen

Design ｜ Huang Lin-ying

Publication

Judicial Reform Foundation, December 2025

▍Download PDF Version