司法獨立與民主轉型

Independence of the Judiciary and Democratic Transformation

周志宏(Chih-Hung Chou)

《臺灣民主季刊》 4卷3期 (2007/09) Pp. 153-160

https://doi.org/10.6448/TDQ.200709.0153

摘要

最近大法官人選被用有色的放大鏡檢視，而司法也被質疑向來帶有顏色。台灣過去的司法官要說絕對沒有黨派色彩，恐非事實。不過，一個受終身職保障的法官，是否能真正不受其所屬黨派的影響獨立審判，才是台灣民主轉型之後，司法是否能為人民所信賴的關鍵。在民主轉型的社會中涉及的轉型正義問題，最終都可能會交給司法機關來作最後的裁判，追求轉型正義乃是實現人權建立憲政民主制度的必要過程，大法官很難不被捲入轉型正義的紛爭中。但在民主轉型時期，更需要有一個穩定的司法防線，來化解憲政爭議，捍衛憲政體制。因此，大法官人選的特質，更應該強調其是否能勇於堅持民主憲政之理念及保障人權之信仰，而非其政治立場或色彩。原本憲法所期待於大法官者，不是就職前的黨派顏色，而是任職後的超出黨派、對憲法忠誠、作為憲法的守護者。因此，立法院審查時若能不以黨派色彩、政治立場、政黨利益為唯一的考量，將是台灣是否能成功民主轉型以及確保司法獨立的重要契機，若政黨仍以黨派色彩作為最重要或唯一的標準，則司法要能獨立而沒有顏色，恐怕就難以期待了。

關鍵字

大法官 ； 法官法 ； 司法獨立

並列摘要

Recently, the grand justice selection system has been examined through a biased lens. It may not be true that previous justices were without political leanings. However, since Taiwan's democratic transformation, the key to whether Taiwan's jurisprudence will gain the confidence of the people is whether justices, with their life-long positions in the judiciary, can judge cases independently without the influence of the political party they belong to. The issue of transitional justice, which may occur in the process of a democratic transformation, will eventually be submitted to the court for a final ruling. Pursuing transitional justice is a necessary process in order to ensure that the constitutional democratic system is built with human rights, and it is inevitable that the grand justices will be involved in the debate over transitional justice. During a period of democratic transformation, a stable judiciary is even more necessary as a line of defense in order to reconcile constitutional disputes and safeguard the constitutional system. The role of the grand justice, as defined in the Constitution, is that he or she must surmount political orientations after being elected, in order to respect and safeguard the Constitution. Thus, it is now critical for Taiwan's success or failure in democratic transformation and in guaranteeing judicial independence that the Legislative Yuan abandon the practice of treating the political orientation, the political standpoint, and the profit of political parties as considerations while conducting investigations. On the contrary, as political parties continue to regard political orientation as the most important or the only criterion, it may be difficult to realize judicial independence without any bias.

並列關鍵字

grand justice ； judicial independence ； law of judges