Bill on lay participation in justice system to be completed soon

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/08/12
By: You Kai-hsiang, Lu Hsin-hui and Y.F. Low

Taipei, Aug. 12 (CNA) A draft law on lay participation in Taiwan’s judicial system is expected to be completed at the end of this year, when it will be presented to the public for discussion, a Judicial Yuan official said Saturday.

The bill will be forwarded to the Legislative Yuan for review after it is approved by the Judicial Yuan in the first half of next year, Judicial Yuan Secretary-General Lu Tai-lang (呂太郎) said during a national conference on judicial reform held at the Presidential Office.

A key issue is to learn from other countries’ experiences and design a mechanism that meets Taiwan’s needs, he said, but at present the idea would be to set a “lay judge” or “lay assessor” system, in which lay judges join with professional judges in deciding cases.    [FULL  STORY]