Taiwans Constitutional Court from 2003 to 2011 : New Appointments and Different Performance

The first draft of this paper was presented at the Conference on The Role of Constitutional Adjudication in the Development of Asian Democracy, held by Seoul National University, on December 12, 2011. An earlier version of this paper, entitled Evolution of Taiwans Constitutional Court from 1948 to 2011 : Emergence of an Active but Divided Court, was published at European-Asian Journal of Law and Governance (EAJLG), Special Issue, pp.1-15 (Dec. 2011).In October 2003, Taiwans Constitutional Court underwent its first structural change, mainly in the number and term of Justices, since its establishment in 1948. Meanwhile, this new court also faced the first party turnover and divided government in the history of Taiwan. Against the above backdrop, this paper discusses the impact of such structural and political changes on the overall performance of this new court. After a brief review of the development of Taiwans Constitutional Court under the authoritarian rule (1950s to 1980s), this paper went on to analyze the major reforms during the democratization process of 1990s. Comparing the performance of Taiwan's Constitutional Court before and after 2003, this paper finds the post-2003 court has been a much more active and divided one, due to the above structural change and some personal factors. Moreover, the change toward staggered and individualized terms has triggered an unintended consequence of increasingly partisan appointment process. In terms of career backgrounds of Justices before appointment, this paper also finds that those scholars-turned-Justices, particularly those formerly pubic law scholars, have been the most outspoken and active Justices in practice