It has been three years since the system of national judges was put into operation. The Judicial Yuan today (30th) announced the "Report on the Implementation of National Participation in Trial Cases for 114 Years". Last year, the national judge tribunals in local courts across the country concluded a total of 91 cases and elected 546 national judges and 25 national judges. 7 reserve national judges; 4,655 candidate national judges actually attended, with an attendance rate of 47.6%, an increase from 3,618 in the previous year. In 2014, a total of 204 new national judges were admitted nationwide to participate in the trial, of which 64 homicide cases were the largest. Judging from the results of the appeals, most of the appeals were rejected in the second and third trials. Most of the judgments of the National Judge's Court were upheld after appeals.
According to statistics from the Judicial Yuan, in 2014, a total of 12,742 candidates for national judges were notified to participate in the selection process. After deducting those who were removed according to law and those whose notices could not be delivered, 9,779 people were supposed to show up, and 4,655 people actually showed up, with an attendance rate of 47.6%. National judges perform their duties for an average of 4.1 days and 20.4 hours, and the total duration of trial sessions is an average of 13.2 hours.
Judging from the background of the candidates for national judges present, there were 2,391 men, accounting for 51.4%, and 2,264 women, accounting for 48.6%. The gender ratio was roughly balanced; the largest age group was 1,246 people between 40 and 49 years old, followed by 1,156 people between 30 and 39 years old.
In terms of academic qualifications, 2,601 people are in tertiary education, followed by 1,117 people in high school vocational education; 892 people are entrepreneurs and self-employed professionals, 879 are service, sales and labor staff, and 865 are technical, assistant and administrative staff. In addition, the candidates include 93 people with indigenous ethnic identities, covering 11 ethnic groups, 131 naturalized people who have obtained Chinese nationality, and 115 people with disabilities.
In terms of cases, a total of 204 new cases involving citizens were admitted nationwide in 2014, of which 64 were homicide cases. 186 cases were closed throughout the year, including 91 cases closed by the people's judge's court, 87 cases ruled by the court that citizens could not participate in the trial, and 8 cases closed due to other reasons.
In the appeal part, in 2014, a total of 75 national-participation trials were concluded by the second-instance court in 2014, with 89 defendants, 71 of which were "appeal rejected (without reason)". The third-instance court concluded 43 cases with 48 defendants, of which 46 were "appeal rejected (illegal)."
Compared with 2013, 63 cases were concluded in the first-instance national judge court, 32 cases were concluded in the second instance, and 11 cases were concluded in the third instance. In 2014, the number of cases concluded at all levels increased significantly. The Judicial Yuan pointed out that based on the overall review of the outcome of the appeal, the majority of the cases involving national participation were upheld after being heard by the higher court.
The Judicial Yuan stated that the national judge system has been implemented for three years and the overall operation has gradually stabilized. The second phase has been officially launched since January 1 this year, and the scope of application has been further expanded to "crimes with the lightest sentence of more than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment." It is expected to increase the types of national participation in trial cases and the number of new cases, which will accumulate broader practical experience for the system and deepen society's attention and discussion on the national judge system.
