The 2020 Global Review of Constitutional Law: Taiwan

Abstract

President Tsai Ing-wen’s reelection and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) continuing control of the Legislative Yuan after the elections in January 2020 were the determining factor of Taiwan’s constitutional development in 2020. President Tsai and the DPP’s electoral landslide victory not only defied the political headwinds stirred by the seismic local elections and referenda in 2018 but also extended and deepened the reform agenda since 2016. On the one hand, transitional justice, an unmistakable rallying cry for President Tsai and her DPP in the past decades, continued to play a pivotal role in Taiwan’s constitutional development within and outside the Taiwan Constitutional Court (TCC). On the other hand, after a long lull, constitutional amendment entered the reform agenda in 2020.

As will become clear, the direction of the reform of the Capital-C Constitution remained unclear in 2020. Yet, on the general landscape of constitutional development, it was a mixed scene. Reform, whether in the form of government reorganization or the response to the global pandemic, entailed means that seemed to make an end run around the constitution in the pursuit of higher constitutional ends. Even in a seemingly mundane license renewal process, freedom of speech entered the scene, raising constitutional issues concerning the regulation of accurate reporting. The TCC was part of the mixed scenes in the 2020 constitutional landscape in Taiwan. While standing firm on the reform agenda, the TCC showed its conservative facet when the petitions before it failed to resonate with the public.

Keywords: Taiwan Constitutional Court