Regulations regarding secrecy in the assignment of cases to judges at the ROC’s Supreme and Supreme Administrative Courts will be repealed April 16 to enhance transparency, according to the Judicial Yuan.
The two high courts have been practicing secret case assignment for 60 years.
“Under the old system, cases accepted by the two courts for third review were given a code, sealed securely and randomly assigned to judges by computer,” Huan Lin-lun, deputy director-general of the Judicial Yuan’s Department of Judicial Administration, said March 14.
“In that way, before judges handed down a ruling, no one could know who was trying a case at this crucial, final level,” he continued. “The aim was to prevent outside interference from the public or media.”
The procedure has been criticized as a black box impervious to public oversight, however, and no other advanced countries use such a system, Huan said.
“We trust that the abolition of secret case assignment will further protect people’s rights in judicial litigation,” the Judicial Yuan said.
Lin Meng-huang, a Taipei District Court judge who initiated a petition to reform the Supreme Court, said he was happy to see the change, but the real test would be what new procedures are adopted. “The law governing the organization of the nation’s courts needs to be revised, and the ways in which courts at all levels assign cases should be made public,” he added. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw