TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Supreme Court has appointed its first female Supreme Court chief justice in a handover ceremony held in Taipei on Thursday (June 1).

Chief Justice Kao Meng-hsun (高孟焄) said that she will unify legal opinions and improve the efficiency of trials, per CNA. She also said the Supreme Court was facing a labor shortage, and that she will work to create a stable court that does not burden judges.

Kao began her career as a trial judge at the age of 24, according to Judicial Yuan President Hsu Tzong-li (許宗力). Hsu said at the ceremony he believes Kao will lead the Supreme Court to find innovative ways to carry out the business of the court through her rich practical experience and legal knowledge.

Kao’s appointment comes 56 years after the first woman was appointed to the Supreme Court. In the years after her appointment, Justice Chang Chin-lan (張金蘭) called out former U.S. President Richard Nixon for not appointing a woman to the country’s own Supreme Court.

“... I read in the paper that he did not appoint a woman and I was disappointed,” Chang was quoted as saying in 1972. “Maybe next time,” she said.

An article from the Los Angeles Times from March 1972, quoting Justice Chang Chin-lan's comments on the U.S. supreme court. (Google News, Tuscaloosa News image)

Taiwan’s Supreme Court traces its history back over 2,000 years, to the time of “the Chinese system of Judges that began during the time of Emperor Yao,” according to the court’s website. It is overseen by the Judicial Yuan, one of the country’s five branches of central government.