TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Tsai Ing-wen met prospective nominees for the leadership of the Judicial Yuan and for the Council of Grand Justices Saturday, though the official choices won’t be announced until September 1.
No official nominations have yet been announced, but media widely reported that Tsai wanted to name Hsu Tzong-li, a former grand justice and professor at National Taiwan University, to head the Judicial Yuan, one of the five branches of government under the present Constitution. She is also due to name a vice president for the same body and five members of the 15-seat Council of Grand Justices.
Six of the seven prospective candidates visited Tsai at the Presidential Office on Saturday afternoon, with only one absent due to an overseas trip, a spokesman said.
The president, who herself took office last May 20, has not had an easy ride picking top judicial officials. Her first choices for president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan, Hsieh Wen-ting and Lin Ching-fang respectively, came under fire and withdrew.
Even though Hsu has not been officially nominated yet, his choice has also been challenged by some as potentially unconstitutional. The Constitution allowed grand justices of the Judicial Yuan to serve eight years consecutively, but not longer, critics said.
However, experts and government supporters pointed out that Hsu had served on the Council of Grand Justices from 2003 until 2011, and that his eventual appointment as president of the Judicial Yuan this year would not be consecutive and therefore not violate the Constitution.
If nominated by Tsai, Hsu and his likely vice presidential candidate, Supreme Court judge Tsai Chung-tun, will have to win the approval of the Legislative Yuan. The five expected nominees for the Council of Grand Justices are law professors at NTU and Chiayi University, the chairman of a judicial reform association, and a female senior official at the Judicial Yuan, reports said.