Op-ed: Taiwan's constitutional court paralyzed by legislation it cannot review

Tsai Tsung-jen (蔡宗珍), Yang Hui-chin (楊惠欽) and Chu Fu-mei (朱富美) — have released a five-point statement arguing that the Constitutional Court remains bound by the provisions of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (CCPA, 憲法訴訟法) governing the quorum and voting requirements for convening and hearing cases. Amended in December last year, the act now requires at least 10 justices to hear a case and nine affirmative votes to declare a law unconstitutional, replacing the previous rule that required two-thirds of sitting justices to participate and a simple majority to reach a decision. However, with only seven sitting justices and a deadlock in the Legislative Yuan stalling further nominations, the court has effectively been paralyzed. It seems that the justices who claim that the court is therefore unable to rule on the CCPA’s constitutionality have fallen into a circular reasoning trap.
Read the full article here: Taipei Times