RESOLUTIONS:Hundreds of participants attended a 1999 congress on judicial reform, which resulted in 1,800 pages of minutes, but only 32 suggested reforms

Taipei Times
Date: May 22, 2016
By: Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Legal professionals and members of the Judicial Reform Foundation yesterday welcomed President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) call for a national congress on judicial issues, but urged the new administration to keep the congress open to participation by all sectors of society.

“There is an urgent need for the proposed congress because Taiwan has changed, and there are now very different political and social forces at work from the last time a national congress on judicial issues was held in 1999,” foundation executive director Kao Jung-chih (高榮志) said.

In her inaugural speech on Friday, Tsai said her administration would vigorously promote judicial reform.

“The general sentiment is that the judiciary system is not close to the public, nor trusted by it. It is unable to fight crime effectively and has lost its function as the last line of defense for justice,” she said, adding that to address the problem, her government would hold a national congress on judicial issues in October with the participation of the public.

Kao reminded Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party administration not to retread the same ground and not to repeat the same mistakes as in 1999.     [FULL  STORY]