The Impact of International Human Rights Treaties on the Judicial Practices after Their Incorporation into Domestic Law -- Focusing on the Judgments of Administrative Courts in R.O.C. (TAIWAN)

Abstract

In recent years, Taiwan has successively enacted the enforcement acts of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. By incorporating these international human rights treaties into domestic law, it is intended to protect the fundamental rights of the people more thoroughly. This article examines the impact of these human rights treaties on the judgments of the administrative courts, and finds that most courts treat these treaties superficially. This article suggests that only if the courts can take the treaties more seriously and apply them in a more meaningful way (e.g., recognizing new rights or giving new contents of existing rights), can Taiwan`s human rights protection be upgraded to a new level.

近年來，我國陸續通過「公民與政治權利國際公約」、「經濟社會文化權利國際公約」、「消除對婦女一切形式歧視公約」、「兒童權利公約」及「身心障礙者權利」施行法，希望藉由國際人權公約的內國法化，為我國人民提供更周全的人權保障。本文分別從形式及實質層面觀察上述人權公約對行政法院裁判的影響，發現目前行政法院引用公約似乎有重量不重質的情形。本文認為，行政法院未來應更有意義的引用公約的規定（包括引進尚未承認的權利，補充現有權利的內涵），才能真正將我國人權的保障提升到一個新的層次。