Event Description
More than 30 years after lifting Martial Law in 1987, Taiwan has emerged as an established constitutional democracy in the Asia-Pacific region. Yet, the grievances caused in the country’s authoritarian past still lingers in the present as the government and society try to find transitional justice for those who have suffered under that dark period of the island’s history. Transitional justice—which links the past to the present—remains unsettled and has contributed to a divided society. These issues are presenting new challenges to the further development of Taiwan’s constitutional democracy. To address how the development of transitional justice shapes constitutionalism and democracy in Taiwan, this panel will attempt to discuss what transitional justice measures have been undertaken; why some transitional justice measures have failed and their impact on human rights and democracy in Taiwan; and what are the obstacles and opportunity for transitional justice as Taiwan moves toward democratic consolidation. The Global Taiwan Institute is pleased to present the research findings of its Civil Society and Democracy Visiting Fellow Dr. Yi-Li Lee, with eminent scholar Dr. Richard Bush of the Brookings Institution serving as the discussant. Dr. Lee’s presentation will be followed by comments from Ms. Yi-chen Lo of Harvard Law School who will share some Taiwan youth perspectives on transitional justice.
Doors will open at 11:30. A light lunch will be served, and the event will begin at 12:00. Kindly RSVP by April 23. Please, direct questions or concerns to Program Associate Marzia Borsoi-Kelly at mborsoikelly@globaltaiwan.
**Media: Please contact Ms. Borsoi-Kelly at mborsoikelly@globaltaiwan.
Panelists:
Yi-Li Lee is the Civil Society and Democracy Fellow at GTI, a position partially supported by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. Dr. Lee obtained her Ph. D. from College of Law of National Taiwan University in August 2014. After graduating, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow at National Taiwan University, College of Law, for two years. In 2016, she was awarded the Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholar Award and Postdoctoral Research Abroad Program Scholarship from Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology. With the support of these scholarships, she independently conducted a one-year research program on the judicial strategy to transitional justice and the corresponding contexts in East Asia at Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and East Asian Legal Studies. Her scholarship mainly focuses on the intersections between the fields of transitional justice, comparative constitutional law, international humanitarian law, international human rights law and international criminal law.
Richard Bush is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, holds the Michael H. Armacost Chair and Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies, and is co-director, with Mireya Solís, of its Center for East Asia Policy Studies (CEAP). Dr. Bush served almost five years as the chairman and managing director of the American Institute in Taiwan, the mechanism through which the United States government conducts substantive relations with Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic relations. Before serving as head of AIT, he was a national intelligence officer for East Asia and a member of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and also as a staff consultant on the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, among other posts.
Yi-chen Lo is an S.J.D candidate at the Harvard Law School where she is studying Comparative Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence and Comparative Law. Prior to this, Ms. Lo attended the National Taiwan University. A recipient of the Taiwan TUSA Doctoral Studies Funding, and the Taiwan-Germany Exchange Student Scholarship, Ms. Lo was also a Harvard Local Representative of the North American Taiwan Studies Association, and she was the president of the Harvard GSAS Taiwan Student Association. In 2017, Ms. Lo was a presenter at the 11th Symposium on Constitutional Interpretation at the Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
The Civil Society and Democracy series will continue throughout the year and focus on various topics relating to Taiwan’s democracy and human rights. The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization and is the first national democracy assistance foundation to be established in Asia, and is devoted to strengthening democracy and human rights in Taiwan and abroad.