When the Temporary Becomes Indefinite: Legitimacy, Path Dependency and Taiwan’s Hybrid Approach to Constitutional Amendment Codification

Abstract

Taiwan’s codification of constitutional amendment indicates an appendative-invisible hybrid model. It is appendative because the 1947 Constitution has been amended by the add-on Additional Articles with its original text left untouched. It is invisible because the Additional Articles have been rewritten without visible indication of textual change. This Chapter makes two observations of Taiwan’s codification choice. First, Taiwan’s hybrid model is path-dependent, emerging from its search for constitutional legitimacy through institutional continuity. Tracing its roots back to the 1948 appendage of the Temporary Provisions to the 1947 Constitution, the Additional Articles’s enactment in 1991 and subsequent amendments reflect the role of Taiwan’s changing identity in shaping the legitimacy and codification of constitutional amendment. Second, evolving from a temporary design into an indefinite feature under path dependency, the lasting hybrid model gives away the Taiwanese people’s ambivalence about how to assert constitutional identity in face of an uncertain political future.

Keywords: Taiwan, constitution, codification, constitutional amendment