‘FREE SPEECH’: Taiwan Forever Society’s chairman said the suits are an ‘abuse of democracy to subvert democracy, and an abuse of freedom to suppress freedom’By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Platform launched to aid lay judges
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Judicial reform advocates yesterday launched a “National Judge Information Platform” to provide guidance and assist people who become part of a proposed lay judge system.
The platform has compiled case documents gathered from district courts and would add feedback from participating lay judges to add to assessments by observers and legal practitioners, Judicial Reform Foundation chairman Lin Yung-sung (林永頌) said.
“It is to help people now involved in the simulation court trials that the Judicial Yuan is running nationwide, preparing them for the official implementation of the lay judge system in two years,” Lin told a news conference in Taipei alongside Taiwan Jury Association director Chen Wei-shyang (陳為祥) and representatives from the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy and the Taiwan Labor Front.
Majority dissatisfied with judicial reform measures: survey
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Law practitioners and Taiwan Jury Association (TJA) members yesterday gave the government a failing grade for its judicial reform efforts, citing the results of a survey showing that nearly 70 percent of the respondents were dissatisfied with reform measures, amid an investigation into former Supreme Court judge Shih Mu-chin (石木欽) and others over corruption allegations.
Presenting the results at a news briefing in the legislature, TJA director Chen Wei-shyang (陳為祥) said the association had commissioned Taipei-based polling firm D&S Intelligence Co to conduct the survey from Jan. 28 to 30.
“The results showed that 68.9 percent of people do not trust our justice system . while only 26.4 percent said they trust it,” he said. “This is a historic low for people not trusting in the justice system.”