TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Judicial Yuan on Monday released the results of its 2024 survey assessing the citizen judges system, noting increased trust in the judiciary and growing willingness among citizen judges to serve again.
Among those who served as citizen judges or alternates, trust in the judiciary rose from 89.8% before participation to 98.7% afterward. Additionally, 95.3% of participants indicated they would be willing to serve again in future trials, according to CNA.
A total of 6,932 valid responses were collected. The survey covered 63 cases involving citizen participation and targeted 3,618 candidate citizen judges, 378 serving citizen judges, and 179 alternate citizen judges.
Entering its third year, the system recorded a notable increase in the number of concluded cases in 2024 compared to the previous year. Under the system, six randomly selected citizens join three professional judges to adjudicate major criminal cases, according to the Judicial Yuan.
Regarding the trial process, 99.2% of respondents expressed a positive overall impression of the final deliberation. Concerns about willingness to participate in trials decreased after participation.
Clarity of key issues, evidence examination, and legal concepts during the trial was found easy to understand by 98.7%, 98.8%, and 97.6% of respondents, respectively. These figures represent improvements from 2023.
The Judicial Yuan noted that despite an increase in case complexity, due to multiple defendants and more denials, efforts by prosecution, defense, and judges to clarify key issues helped citizen judges focus on essential points during trials and deliberations.
Eligibility for Taiwan's citizen judges requires being at least 23 years old and having continuously resided in the local court’s jurisdiction for over four months. Citizen judges may be selected for trials involving intentional crimes causing death or offenses with a minimum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment.
