From the wall of a Japanese restaurant, something about an old tree with its roots firmly attached to the ground, and its leaves to the branches, and still growing.
We now return to our regularly scheduled fantasy...
While Taiwan's 台湾 criminal justice system is organized along Japanese lines, its institutions enjoy a great deal of autonomy. Law enforcement is provided by a commonwealth police force under the oversight of a police agency headquartered in Taihoku 台北. The force is staffed almost entirely from top to bottom with Taiwanese, and operates independently from the National Police Agency 警察庁 in Japan. Operations are centralized, and police officers can, and often are, assigned to different areas of Taiwan during their careers.
The judicial system also operates separately from that in Japan. As with the police force, the number of Japanese officials has been reduced over the decades to the point where virtually all prosecutors, judges and corrections officers are Taiwanese. Taiwan has its own law schools which train students to become lawyers, and its own bar association, which administers qualifying exams for those wishing to practice law, as well as being responsible for seeing that its members adhere to its ethical standards. While the commonwealth government does recognize legal degrees and qualifications obtained in Japan, it still requires the holders of such to pass a modified bar exam if they wish to set up practice in Taiwan (the reverse holds true for Taiwanese aspiring to do the same in Japan).
The basic court system is divided into three tiers, with trial courts at the lowest level; district courts, which handle appeals of trial court decisions, as well as cases involving more technical matters; and a high court, which sits in Taihoku. In theory, Taiwanese are entitled to appeal high court decisions to the Supreme Court of Japan 最高裁判所 in Tōkyō 東京. In practice, however, such requests are usually rejected by the Japanese high bench, unless there are constitutional issues involved (see below). As is the case with all other official matters of business in Taiwan, Japanese is the language employed in the practice of law on the island.
Taiwanese courts have yet to follow the lead of courts in Japan and establish a lay judge system 裁判員制度, but the issue is currently being discussed in Taiwan's legislature.
Despite the autonomy enjoyed by the legal/criminal justice systems on Taiwan, there are a couple of important restrictions that must be noted. The first is that any act passed by the National Diet 国会 in Tōkyō can supersede any legislation enacted by the commonwealth's legislative assembly in Taihoku. Secondly, all laws promulgated in Taiwan must be in accordance with the Constitution of Japan 日本国憲法.
No comments:
Post a Comment