Into the woods and out of the woods: is the Taiwan Constitutional Court (still) in crisis?

The Centre of Taiwan Studies is delighted to welcome Dr Ming-Sung Kuo to give a talk on the recent constitutional crisis surrounding Taiwan’s Constitutional Court and the broader challenges it faces in navigating judicial legitimacy, institutional paralysis, and constitutional self-preservation.

The Taiwan Constitutional Court (TCC) has seen good days and bad days through its nearly 80 years of history. Apparently, it has not had terrific days since its bench was left barely half-full when seven out of its 15 members stepped down on 31 October 2024. Having been unable to make any ruling on the merits since then, the TCC had been mired in crisis – until it delivered the Judgement of 19 December 2025 in a court of five Justices. 

Striking down the Opposition-introduced court curbing statutory measures – including elevated quorum – the five-Justice TCC was celebrated (by some) as redeeming itself with an overdue action of constitutional self-help, only to see three other Justices staying away from the TCC and extramurally condemning the self-helping judgment as the poisoned fruit of an unlawful tribunal. After the judgement, is the TCC still in crisis? Or is it in a new crisis? When was it first plunged into a crisis?  Guided by these crisis-centred questions, this talk aims to cast light on the real challenges facing the TCC through the fog of Taiwan’s crisis talks.