Reporters Requested to Cover Ministry of Justice Meeting, 9:30 am June 9th (Monday)
Richard,
Congratulations on prompting such a high-level meeting to be convened on your behalf. Good job!
Does this have anything to do with the MOJ’s announcement, a couple of months ago, that it is considering amending the law to create an International Affairs Dept? The MOJ and Taipei Times said that a need existed for such a department, but they never explained what that need is, so I was left wondering. Would it be similar to the International Affairs Dept of the US DOJ, that seems to deal mostly with extraditions? Probably not. Or to work with other countries in combatting IP infringement? More likely. Or to deal with divorce/custody issues and other types of matters that you seem to get involved in? Just curious.
Also, do you think there’s any chance that a foreign lawyer might be allowed to attend your meeting?
. . . or perhaps this meeting and/or the International Affairs Dept will address service of process in Taiwan concerning lawsuits filed in the US. This “letters rogatory” process is one of the most complex legal procedures I’ve ever heard of, taking at least a year, involving numerous courts and agencies in Taiwan and the states, and surely resulting in total confusion and differences of opinion from the judges and other authorities. If someone overseas wants to sue you, move to Taiwan – they’ll never be able to jump through all the hoops.
Richard- Congrats!! You should inform all the wire services, like the Central News Agency, Taiwan’s wire service. Western wires are Dow Jones, Bridge and Bloomberg. The newspapers and (TV stations?) rely on the wires for information. Is that good advice, all you newspaper guys still in the business?
If they put out an announcement about the meeting on the wire, you’re more likely to get reporters to show up. Of course stress how unique this meeting is in Chinese. First, it’s a briefing by a foreigner that is an expert in US-Taiwan international law and human rights law. 2nd, as you already said, it’s a cross departmental meeting which is very rare.