Public Interest Litigation in Taiwan: Strategy for Law and Policy Changes in the Course of Democratization

Abstract

Public interest litigation has become a primary strategy of public-interest groups after Taiwan’s democratization took place in the late 1980s. This paper aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of public interest litigation in Taiwan. It finds that the development of public interest litigation in Taiwan can be divided into two into two periods: constitutional litigation during the late 1980s and 1990s and public interest litigation at the lower courts in the post-democratization period after 2000. In the first period, the primary objective was to use constitutional litigation to make law and policy changes. The actors of constitutional litigation were not limited to public interest groups but also extended to legislators, opposition parties, judges and even government agencies. Constitutional litigation in this period was very successful. The second period began with more public interest litigation at administrative or ordinary courts in the areas of rights of school children, rights of criminal defendants, and environment protection. While still in the early development, the second period has seen some successful case. Unlike constitutional litigation which is free of charge, public interest litigation at the lower courts is much more costly, and thus resource constraints remain the greatest concern. If this financial concern can be further addressed, public interest litigation in Taiwan would have a better chance of blossoming.

Keywords: public interest litigation, Taiwan, constitutional litigation, post-democratization period, administrative court, ordinary court

JEL Classification: K40