Specialised Indigenous divisions in Taiwan's high courts

Abstract

This article incorporates judicial practice and related research to consider some of the shortcomings and issues relating to the goals of the specialised Indigenous court units. Specialised Indigenous court units, which have been in Taiwan's high courts since 2014, have lofty goals, but critical questions remain in terms of these expectations. Taiwan's high courts administer dozens of Indigenous cases annually, but few are related to Indigenous cultural issues. High court judges attend annual non-mandatory training programmes related to Indigenous people's issues; however, it is questionable whether judges are sufficiently knowledgeable in these fields. The toughest question many judges face is determining whether Indigenous practices are ‘facts’ or ‘customary laws’. If they are facts, then Indigenous defendants and their counsel must take the initiative to explain them; if they are customary laws, then judges must take the initiative to find and apply them. Other issues include how Indigenous cases are sometimes assigned to specialised military courts, a process in which defendants can lose their Indigenous status.