各級法院法官自律實施辦法

This Regulation is promulgated in accordance with Article 23, Paragraph 3 of the Judges Act (hereinafter the Act).

1Courts at all levels and branches thereof shall establish Judges’ Self-Discipline Committee (hereinafter Self-Discipline Committee) to deal with matters concerning the self-discipline of judges of the court so as to maintain the nobility, integrity and professional dedication of judges and upgrade the judiciary image.

2“Judges of the court” as referred to in the preceding paragraph shall include judges detailed to that court to handle adjudication and judges of that court being detailed to the Judicial Yuan, the Judicial Personnel Study Institute of the Judicial Yuan, or the Training Institute for Judges and Prosecutors of Ministry of Justice .

3A court that has less than ten judges may jointly establish the Self-Discipline Committee with other courts at the same level, provided that the Judicial Yuan shall designate other court at the same level to jointly establish the Self-Discipline Committee with the court that has not more than three judges.

4In the event a judge is transferred to a judicial administrative staff, detailed, retired, or resigned for other causes after the completion of the act subject to self-disciplinary actions, the Self-Discipline Committee of the court where the judge served at the time the act was completed shall review the self-discipline matters.

5This Regulation shall apply to a judge’s act prior to his being transferred to a judicial administrative staff, retirement, or resignation.

6“Court” and “president” as referred to in this Regulation includes the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission and its Chief Commissioner.

1The Self-Discipline Committee shall be organized by the judge representatives, with the president being an ex officio member.

2For a court that has not more than ten judges, the Self-Discipline Committee shall comprises three judges representatives (including the president) as its members; if the numbers of all judges should exceed ten, a new committee member shall be added for each additional ten, odd numbers less than ten shall be counted as ten. The maximum of committee members shall not exceed nine.

3For the committee members other than the president, two-thirds shall be elected through secret ballot by all the judges of the court, and one-third shall be designated by the president; odd numbers shall be rounded up.

4No judge who has been subjected to disciplinary sanction in the most recent five years may serve as an elected or designated member in the preceding paragraph.

5“All the judges of the court” as referred to in Paragraph 3 shall not include judges under suspension of duty, or engaging in full-time continued education by taking leave of absence with/without pay.

6The jointly established Self-Discipline Committee under the preceding Article, Paragraph 3 shall have, in addition to the respective presidents serving as ex officio members, the rest of the members elected by all the judges of the respective courts.

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1Members of the Self-Discipline Committee must attend the meetings in person. Proxy votes are not acceptable.

2The provisions set forth in the Administrative Procedures Act with respect to the disqualification of judges shall be applicable mutatis mutandis to the disqualification of the members.

1In the event any seat of the Self-Discipline Committee should become vacant, it shall be, according to the means the particular member is selected, made up by the member re-designated by the president or by the alternate member in sequence according to the vote gained in the original election.

2In the event any member cannot carry out his/her duty for a long term or is approved with sufficient facts not suitable for continuing serving as a member of the Self-Discipline Committee, the president shall, according to the means the particular member is selected, re-designate a member instead or submit to the Self-Discipline Committee for a relief-of-duty resolution and have the vacancy made up by the alternate member in sequence according to the vote gained in the original election.

3The alternate members and re-designated members in accordance with the preceding two paragraphs shall serve until the end of the original term.

1The president of a court at all levels or three judges shall submit the relevant materials to the Self-Discipline Committee for review in the event a judge of that court has one of the following situations:

2(1) Violating the duties of a judge, tardiness in carrying out duties, or misconduct(s).

3(2) Violating Article 15 of the Act.

4(3) Concurrently serving the positions or performing duties for the businesses listed in the respective section of Article 16 of the Act.

5(4) Disclosing nonpublic information acquired in judicial capacity.

6(5) Gross violation of case management procedures or rules of duties in a severe way.

7(6) Delaying adjudication without proper justification, unduly delaying the declaration of judgment or the delivery of the original copy of decisions and failing to improve after being notified to rectify within a specific time limit.

8(7) Accepting the solicitation for the cases of others.

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For judges having reasons to be awarded, the relevant materials may be submitted to the Self-Discipline Committee for review in accordance with paragraph 1 of the preceding Article.

1The president of the court shall convene the Self-Discipline Committee meeting and act as its chairperson; for the jointly established Self-Discipline Committee in accordance with Article 2, Paragraph 3 that has two or more presidents as its members, the (most) senior president shall convene and chair the meeting.

2In the event the president cannot convene or attend the meeting with cause, the president shall designate a member to act on his/her behalf.

3The Self-Discipline Committee shall convene once every three months, but may not need to convene if no item on the agenda, or may hold extraordinary session if necessary; two or more members may also request in writing that the president convene the meeting.

4The resolution of the Self-Discipline Committee shall be reached by a majority of the members at a meeting attended by a majority of the members. In the event of a tie in votes for and against, shall be decided by the casting vote of the chairperson.

5The opinions of the respective members during review shall be incorporated in the records.

The Self-Discipline Committee may establish task forces to conduct, regularly or irregularly, random inspections on judges of that court to examine if the situation stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 Section 6 exist and in case such situation exists, submit to the Self-Discipline Committee for review.

The Self-Discipline Committee may request the related case file and evidence in order to examine whether a judge has met any of the situations as referred to in the respective section of Article 6, Paragraph 1.

The Self-Discipline Committee shall notify the judge being reviewed to attend its meeting or provide written explanations and may notify the division-chief judge with whom the judge being reviewed is affiliated or other related personnel to attend its meeting or provide written explanations.

1The Self-Discipline Committee may render the following resolution(s) if it finds a judge to have any of the situations stipulated in the respective section of Article 6, Paragraph 1:

2(1) Recommending the individual having the supervising authority to issue an order under Article 21, Paragraph 1, Section 1 of the Act, urging the judge to take notice.

3(2) Recommending the individual having the supervising authority to issue a warning under Article 21, Paragraph 1, Section 2 of the Act.

4(3) Recommending the president of the court to request, in the name of the affiliated court, the Judicial Evaluation Committee to initiate an evaluation.

5(4) Recommending the Judicial Yuan to forward sua sponte such disciplinable matter directly to the Control Yuan for review in accordance with Article 51, Paragraph 2 of the Act.

6(5) Recommending an order to make improvement within a specific time limit or other appropriate dispositions.

7In the event that the Self-Discipline Committee considers a judge having any reason to be awarded, it shall resolve to recommend the Judicial Yuan to provide awards.

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1The Self-Discipline Committee shall render a non-disposal resolution if the judge is deemed not to have any of the situations stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 or the period allowed for submitting the disciplinable facts is expired.

2The non-disposal of certain disciplinable facts due to the expiration of the period allowed for submitting the disciplinable facts shall not affect the execise of supervising authority.

1Meeting minutes shall be served and immediately submitted to the Judicial Yuan for approval and reference.

2The Judicial Yuan may remand the case to the original court for reconsideration or other appropriate disposition when finding the resolution made by the Self-Discipline Committee improper.

The Self-Discipline Committee shall notify the judge being reviewed its resolution(s) in writing.

The attendees and attendances of the meeting shall strictly fulfill the obligation of confidentiality for the information obtained during the meeting that concerns the individual capability, integrity and other matters subject to confidential treatment.

The documentation section of a court at all levels shall be in charge of the supporting task of the Self-Discipline Committee in that court.

1The Judicial Yuan may, when dispatching representative to conduct supervision of its affiliated courts, review the relevant documents and evidence of the Self-Discipline Committee meetings.

2The Judicial Yuan may take the enforcement of self-discipline of courts at all levels as a reference in the group performance rating among the various levels of courts.

This Regulation shall be implemented as of July 6, 2012.