The Taiwanese legal research method in cyberspace-A( By Wanli Yang)

A.Major Online Taiwan Legal Resources
a.Resources in English or bilingual:

(a)Taiwanese Constitution:
http://www.judicial.gov.tw/( click on the "English" link on the top of the page, then click on the Constitution Court on the right side of the page)
Justices of Constitutional Court,Judicial Yuan(English version,EN)、 (Japan version)、(German version/Deutsch)
By 2006, the Taiwanese Constitutional Court had decided over 620 cases. In recent years, members of Parliament have used their power to raise constitutional issue before the Constitutional court,such as personal information protection(No. 603 fingerprint issue). You can check the website as following. Scroll down and serearch “site map”. Choose “interpretation” you can get the whole holding in English version.

Judicial Yaun
You can get not only background information about the Taiwanese legal system from this website, but also get the first hand legal news and valuable statistic from here. Especially, If your expertise is in Chinese Law, East Asia law, and Comparative law and prefer empirical research , go 'statistics' or “Search J.Y. interpretations.”

This is a very comprehensive website that provides a searchable law databank on Taiwan law, judicial decisions and interpretations, statistic, the Administrative Court's precedents, accounting and legal aid, such as legal form online. (free legal form in Chinese version:http://www.judicial.gov.tw/assist/assist03.asp )

The most important and powerful tool for international law lawyer is “線上查詢” that providing law review index Law Review Index(chinese) and The judgements(interpretations) of all district courts and Appeal Court(chinese),that contains the full-text electronic version of the Civil Case, Criminal Case and Administration case, and collects the cases from all courts including Supreme Court, Appeal Court and District Court. The databases can be accessed by various search approaches via its website.
It is free but the language used in this part is only Chinese.

LawBank( in English)
LawBank( in Chinese) (more comprehensive than the English version).
This is a very comprehensive commercial website. It provides a searchable law databank in English version on Taiwan law, judicial decisions and interpretations(chinese), tracking proposed legislation, law review index, academic articles index(chinese) and even almost all kinds of guidelines of every Taiwan departments(in Chinese).

(b) Taiwanese Laws and Regulations

Laws and Regulations Database of The Republic of China
It is a free accessible Internet resource which collects almost all Taiwanese legal document and legal information in both Chinese and English, and provides e-paper service. The website is supervised by The Ministry of Justice and it also contains extensive links to other Taiwanese law related websites and databases available in the Internet. The contents can be searched using its search engine.

Legislation Yuan(English) (Japanese) (Espanol/Spanish)
The Legislation Yuan has two very useful legal research website, one is The Legislation Yuan and the other is :Global Legal Information Network.

Global Legal Information Network.
It is initiated by taking the goal Library of Congress of the United States in order to promote the sharing of global legal information, and supervised by the Legislation Yuan. The public can get almost all the main Taiwanese laws or regulation(legal document) in English version on this website, and it also provides the updated hot issue and the related legal webs.

(C) Others:
①Government Information Office(Taiwan)
From Taiwan Review can get the full text of current issues, such as the conflict among four major ethnic groups and the issues of new immigrants form Mainland China.
The frame of Who We are provides the laws that been governed by this office, such as Radio and Television Act.
The frame of about Taiwan provides the information about the shape of the government under the Taiwanese Constitution、
Democracy and the Electoral System、Economic Ties with China、Public Health and even the most controversial Taiwan-China Relations are included.
The most exciting part is the frame of Periodicals and Ppublications even provide full text of the periodical, such as some tension issue of Say No to China's Anti-Separation Law . Try subscribe your email to receive online Journal.

①National Health Insurance
Department of Health, Executive Yuan(Taiwan)
Bureau of National Health Insurance
Thought both sides of the political spectrum have also looked to more philosophical arguments, debating whether or not people have a fundamental right to health care provided to them by their government. Taiwan already adopted national health insurance (NHI) since 1995 and became one of countries which embrace Universal Health Care –a state in which all residents of a geographic or political entity have access to health care.
Taiwan’s National Health Insurace program has provided complete and proper medical insurance to most of the 23 million people on the island regardless age, income, occupation or background. But growing medical spending has become a burden to the program. Scholars have suggested implementing financial management to prevent the insurance program from becoming a “financial black hole.” There are a lot of hot issues ongoing, such as constitution debates as following:
(a)、Is the provision of the National Health Insurance Act constitutional in requiring that local governments contribute to the subsidy for premium payable by people residing in their respective administrative regions for the national health insurance program executed by the central government? (J.Y.Interpretation No. 550)
(b)、Shall disputes between the Bureau of National Health Insurance and contracted health care providers arising from performance of the contract be regarded as a matter of public law nature and should the solution therefor follow the administrative litigation procedure?(J.Y.Interpretation No. 533)
(c)、Are some provisions of the National Health Insurance Act inconsistent with the doctrine of legal reservation?(J.Y.Interpretation No. 524)
(d)、Is it unconstitutional to calculate premiums payable under the National Health Insurance program according to an insured amount table prescribed by the authority in charge?(J.Y.Interpretation No. 473)
(e)、Are compulsory national health insurance and the imposition of an overdue charge both unconstitutional? (J.Y.Interpretation No. 472)

Other issues, please check national free online dissertations(English version) (chinese version) and use keyword “全民健康”or “National Health” to get free abstract or fulltext.

(3)Taiwan Security Research
This is an academic and non-governmental website. It collected a lot information and full-text papaers on current events relating to Taiwan's security and regional security issues.

By Wanli Yang

Published January 28,2007