President Ma Ying-jeou met with Professor Jerome A. Cohen, co-director of the U.S. - Asia Law Institute at the New York University School of Law, on the afternoon of May 13 at the Presidential Office. The president extended a warm welcome to Professor Cohen on his visit to Taiwan. President Ma took this opportunity to congratulate Professor Cohen on his 80th birthday this year.
The president remarked that Professor Cohen is an authority in the United States law in mainland China and Taiwan. He began researching mainland China's criminal law procedures in 1960, and was the pioneer in this field in the Western world, he said. President Ma noted that Professor Cohen in 1965 established the East Asian Legal Studies program at Harvard University, and to this day this organization is the most esteemed body in the field in the United States, adding that the association is top notch in the quality of its staff and publications.
President Ma stated that Professor Cohen in recent years has paid extremely close attention to judicial systems on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and especially the criminal justice systems. He has been a close observer of Taiwan, and has offered quite a few extremely insightful recommendations. The president recalled that when he served as Taipei Mayor, Professor Cohen visited Taiwan and toured the temporary detention space at the Da-an Police Station in Taipei. At the time, a number of illegal immigrants from mainland China and illegal laborers were in detention, and Professor Cohen expressed a high level of concern for the protection of their human rights, he said.
President Ma furthermore stated that since his administration has taken office, he has signed the instruments of ratification for two international human rights covenants. In addition, he noted that the Legislative Yuan recently passed the Fair and Speedy Criminal Trials Act, which he said marks an important step forward in the ROC's judicial history. While there is some controversy over the act, the public is looking forward to the promulgation of this law, the president said. While trial judgments may not be so swift, at least procedures will not be delayed for too long, he added, commenting that justice delayed is justice denied.
In mentioning Taiwan's detention system, the president said that recently the Justices of the Constitutional Court have issued an interpretation that puts some limitations on the process, thereby reducing human rights concerns. President Ma said that the Ministry of Justice is presently conducting a critical review of the system. He noted that the Executive Yuan this morning approved a draft of the Judges Act, which will offer more concrete rules to protect the interests of judges while at the same time establishing a system to evaluate judges and prosecutors and weed out those not up to the job. The president said that this law will be extremely meaningful.
Professor Cohen remarked that he first visited Taiwan in 1961 and that over the past nearly five decades the human rights situation in Taiwan has changed dramatically. He said he is presently researching Taiwan's progress on the international human rights front, adding that in the future when he visits mainland China, he will discuss Taiwan's contributions and latest developments in this area. Professor Cohen also said that studying Taiwan's legal system has many benefits for the United States. He said that the American government and people should understand the rapid progress made by Taiwan with regards to human rights and democracy since 1987 when Taiwan lifted martial law. Mainland China should learn from the development of Taiwan's legal system, he said.
Professor Cohen and research fellow Yu-Jie Chen were accompanied to the Presidential Office in the afternoon by Deputy Justice Minister Wu Chen-huan and Government Information Office Deputy Minister Alice Wang to meet President Ma. Also in attendance was National Security Council Advisor Mignonne M. J. Chan.