Taiwan's democratic evolution and judicial independence highlighted in recent lectures

On July 26, a lecture in Taichung’s Central Bookstore was delivered by former presidential adviser Yao Jiawen. He traced Taiwan’s struggle for democracy and sovereignty from the short‑lived 1895 Democratic Republic, through the Japanese‑era petition movement, the 228 incident, martial law, and the 1996 first direct presidential election, emphasizing how each stage shaped Taiwan’s political identity.

A week later, at a Kaohsiung event organized by the Taiwan Human Rights Promotion Association, NTU professor Liu Hengwen examined the historical “party‑politicized” judiciary. He detailed how the Kuomintang inserted party members and ideology into the courts from the 1930s onward, citing statistics on party affiliation among judges and prosecutors, and discussed reforms such as the 2012 Judges Act that now require officials to resign from political parties. Both talks underscored the importance of transitional justice and the need to safeguard judicial independence in Taiwan’s democratic system.