To be frank, I read just now the opinion twice, and nowhere did it say 建立金字塔形的審判體系.
(b) "蔡英文開的藥方是讓多數案件在一、二審之間就終結，且嚴格限制案件上訴第三審的資格"
(i) Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek brought the legal system from China to Taiwan. His legal system of course was not that of Ching/Qing dynasty, but reportedly a mish-mash of Germany, Japan (both under dictatorship) and some inventions of KMT. It is conceivable that after World War II, Germany and Japan have both discarded their old legal systems and no longer look like Taiwan's. Still these two nations practice civil law.
(ii) The UK and US practice common law. United States Supreme Court said there is no constitutional right to appeal (common law only grants the tight to a trial, by a jury if a defendant so chooses; in both criminal and civil cases, which is enshrined in federal and state constitutions). But states has had laws to allow at least one appeal (again in both criminal and civil cases).
(iii) In the common law, a party is entitled to one trial (to find facts), but in Taiwan, a party goes through two trials (at district court 地方法院 and high court 高等法院). Taiwan has no jury trial.
(iv) I have found jury trial one of the great inventions.
I totally disagree. I tried cases in both Taiwan and US. In Taiwan, there is no stare decisis. So there is no way to predict outcomes of a case. This is untrue in US, so a party can forecast and decide whether to settle (in civil cases) or plead guilty (in criminal cases). Prosecutor negotiate with defense attorneys, give and take, produce incentives and awards to avoid trials, whereas no negotiation happens in Taiwan and no incentive to settle or plead. Naturally almost all litigants fight all the way to whatever courts that they can go to.
(d) "另外，台灣彈丸之地，執業律師卻超過九千人，這麼多的律師目前靠著積案如山的司法案件，尚能維持基本生活，一旦「司法院審判機關化」政策落實，並讓法院在短期內消化積案，勢必嚴重打擊律師未來生計"
(i) Taiwan's population has been 23 million for more than a decade (presumable only citizens are counted, excluding foreign workers).
(ii) Lawyers Per Capita by State. The Last Gen X American, last updated on Apr 9, 2016. https://lawschooltuitionbubble.w ... er-capita-by-state/
("This page uses the number of attorneys 'active and resident' according to the 'ABA's National Lawyer Population by State' count (NLPS) and population figures for each state from the US Census Bureau (FRED). The NLPS usually does not tell us the number of inactive or nonresident attorney * * * For the 1.3 million attorneys on the [attorney] rolls [compiled by various states] in 2015, between 1970 and 2015 the ABA conferred just over 1.7 million law degrees and state bars issued more than 2 million lawyer licenses (by examination and diploma privilege [reciprocity among states in US and provinces of Canada], which includes many duplicates). According to the Current Population Survey [of US Census Bureau], 1.2 million attorneys were working in the United States in 2015, but the Labor Department's Employment projections program places the figure at 778,700 (2014)")
No. Lawyers Per Capita by State (2015)
rank .....State ........................Population (2015) .......No Active and Resident Lawyers (2015) ............No. Lawyers Per 10,000 Residents (2015)
1 ..........District of Columbia ..672,228 ......................52,089 .............................................................774.9
2 ..........New York ............19,795,791 ......................172,630 ...........................................................87.2
3 ..........Massachusetts ......6,794,422 ........................43,974 ............................................................64.7
9 ..........California ............39,144,818 ......................165,952 .............................................................42.4
23 ........Texas .................27,469,114 ........................86,494 .............................................................31.5
Imagine Taiwan has 9,000 active lawyers and 23 million residents, that makes it 39 per capita.