Taiwan

• Author: Kuan-Ling Shen,Alex Yueh-Ping Yang
• Published date: 01 March 2009
• Date: 01 March 2009
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0002716208328739
• Subject Matter: Articles

ANNALS, AAPSS, 622, March 2009 301

Taiwan, a civil law system, has several distinctive group

procedures, reformed in the 2003 Code of Civil

Procedure, which emphasized judicial economy. The

representative party procedure, the “joining-into repre-

sentative party” procedure and the “quasi-association’s

suit” procedure, are all based on the assignment of

rights by parties. The “association’s suit for injunction

relief” procedure applies a statutory assignment.

Keywords: Taiwan Code of Civil Procedure; group

litigation; rights of procedure option;

representative party; quasi-association suit;

joining-in representative party; association

suit for injunctive relief; lump sum judg-

ment; distribution agreement

1. Introduction to Taiwan’s Private

Litigation System

Taiwan is a civil law system country. Judicial

precedents are neither the sources of law nor

binding upon judges in law. The court system in

Taiwan is divided into two distinct jurisdictional

branches: the “ordinary” courts, which deal

with civil and criminal matters, and the “admin-

istrative” courts. The ordinary court system is

composed of three levels: the District Court,

the High Court, and the Supreme Court. An

appeal may be made to the Supreme Court

only on grounds that the lower court’s decision

violates a law or order. The jury trial system has

not been adopted in Taiwan.

In principle, the parties govern the course,

scope, and facts of the proceedings according to

Taiwan

By

KUAN-LING SHEN

and

ALEX YUEH-PING YANG

Kuan-Ling Shen is an associate professor at National

Taiwan University, College of Law, and director of the

Foundation of Researching on the Code of Civil

Procedure.

Alex Yueh-Ping Yang is an LL.M student of National

Taiwan University, College of Law.

DOI: 10.1177/0002716208328739