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On National Day, Legislative Yuan Han Guoyu questioned: The Executive Yuan did not countersign the law passed on the third reading by the Legislative Yuan. How will constitutional teachers teach students in the future? On the same day, Kuomintang legislator Weng Xiaoling warned President Lai Qingde and Executive Yuan Zhuo Rongtai that if they do not unite with public opinion and the Legislative Yuan and abide by their constitutional obligations, they will eventually be spurned and overthrown by the people. Weng Xiaoling was an associate professor at Tsinghua University, and constitutional law was her academic specialty. For Han Guoyu’s question, you might as well ask Weng Xiaoling to answer it first.
Legislative Yuan Han Guoyu questioned how the Constitution teachers will teach students in the future because the Executive Yuan did not countersign the law passed on the third reading by the Legislative Yuan. (File photo) Article 37 of the Constitution stipulates that laws promulgated by the President must be countersigned by the Executive Yuan; Article 72 stipulates that after a law is passed, the President shall in principle promulgate it within the statutory period. Article 3 of the additional amendment stipulates that when the Executive Yuan proposes a review and the Legislative Yuan upholds the original case, the Executive Yuan shall accept it immediately. Counter-signature is only a formal requirement to publish the law, or does it include the substantive authority to refuse counter-signature? In particular, whether the countersignature can be refused after the review is rejected involves different interpretations of the constitution, and political accusations cannot be used to replace legal provisions and institutional arguments.
Weng Xiaoling asked the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan to work together, but Article 2 of the Constitution clearly stipulates that sovereignty belongs to all citizens; Article 62 empowers the Legislative Yuan to exercise legislative power on behalf of the people, and does not allow the majority of Congress to monopolize public opinion. The president is directly elected by the people, and the Executive Yuan is responsible to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with the law.
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If the executive and legislative opinions differ, whether it is unconstitutional still requires testing of specific actions and constitutional obligations.
The Constitution has a system of reconsideration and no-confidence motions to allow different authorities to handle conflicts in accordance with the law. Laws passed on third reading may still be subject to constitutional review; if the executive president refuses to countersign, he must also provide a constitutional basis for his authority. Neither the majority vote of Congress nor the exercise of executive power can be divorced from the Constitution.
Legislator Weng Xiaoling was an associate professor at Tsinghua University, and constitutional law was her academic specialty. For Han Guoyu’s question, you might as well ask Weng Xiaoling to answer it first. (File photo) Han Guoyu is worried about how constitutional teachers teach students. This controversy is a ready-made teaching material: the explicit text of the constitution, academic disputes and political party opinions should be clearly distinguished, and the statements of politicians cannot be regarded as standard answers.
Weng Xiaoling has a background in constitutional law teaching, so she should provide specific legal reasons for alleging violation of the constitution.
You can sing the national anthem on National Day, and you can also criticize those in power, but songs cannot replace the constitution, and political differences cannot directly be equated to violation of the constitution. Han Guoyu asked how to teach in the future, and the answer was actually very clear: respect the provisions first, explain the disputes, and then teach students to think independently.
(The author is a retired person)
