Lawyers in Taipei gathered to issue a warning about proposed judicial reform bills that would raise the threshold for constitutional court rulings from a simple majority to a two-thirds majority of the full bench of 15 justices. With only eight justices sitting currently, the bill could paralyze the court.
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00:00Lawyers in Taipei are protesting changes to the judicial system, proposals they say could
00:05bring the country's highest court to a standstill.
00:08The legislature is considering amendments to raise the threshold for making a constitutional
00:12court ruling.
00:14That proposal would require 10 out of the 15 justices to agree, rather than the current
00:18simple majority.
00:20With only 8 justices sitting on the bench right now, protesters warn that passing the
00:24amendment may paralyze the court's operations.
00:27Taiwan's constitutional court has ruled on major issues impacting society, such as same-sex
00:31marriage and the death penalty.
00:35To learn more about the pushback over the judicial reform bill, Tiffany Wong spoke with
00:39attorney Wei-Sung Hong.
00:41Can you tell me more about this judicial reform bill?
00:44What exactly is being proposed?
00:46This time, they are talking about the amendment to the Constitutional Code of Conduct.
00:49In fact, there aren't many provisions, but they want to make sure that no matter what
01:24the law is, it's still a constitutional court.
01:25The proponents of the bill say that raising the threshold for judicial decisions would
01:27actually increase the fairness of these decisions.
01:30What are your concerns about this?
02:25The Constitutional Court recently ruled that laws expanding the power of the legislature
02:34are partially constitutional.
02:36Do you think this call for now judicial reform is pushback for that decision?