the high threshold, the government’s call for referendum was merely political
manipulation. As of the time of writing, the KMT government has insisted on
not revising the threshold and the referendum proposal was filibustered by the
opposition and is still on the legislative floor for further decision.
iii. transnational perspective
The recent development in transnational constitutionalism that includes both
internationalization of constitutional laws and constitutionalization of inter-
national laws has spread around the world. Driven by globalization, constitutional-
ism has developed beyond nation-states.^31 Three features are distinctive in
understanding this new phenomenon: first, the development of transnational
constitutions or quasi-constitutional arrangements; second, the abundance of trans-
national judicial dialogues; and third, a global convergence of institutional arrange-
ments.
32
These developments of transnational constitutionalism became evident in
the constitutional developments of the first decade.
Transnational quasi-constitutional arrangements
Although Taiwan has been isolated from the international community as a result of
its troubled statehood, this fact has never insulated Taiwan from the trend
of transnational constitutionalism. Since the 1990 s, Taiwan has made a great
deal of progress in the areas of both human rights and trade. Concerning the issue
of human rights, several international human rights treaties have been adopted,
and were further incorporated as a part of the domestic legal order. On the issue
of trade, Taiwan has obtained WTO membership and signed the Economic
Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, becoming an avid
participant especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
Ratifying international human rights treaties
After being expelled from the UN by General Assembly Resolution 2758 in 1971 ,
Taiwan had difficulty both joining new treaties and ratifying treaties previously
signed by the ROC. Since the 1970 s, Taiwan has held almost no membership of
major international human rights treaties. However, beginning in the late 1990 s,
several human rights organizations have pressured the government to ratify or join
those treaties. Taiwan has thus adopted quite a few major international human
(^31) Gavin Anderson,Constitutional Rights after Globalization(Oxford: Hart Publishing Ltd.,
2005 ) (arguing that constitutionalism has developed beyond nation-states and advocating
legal pluralism as a solution).
(^32) Yeh and Chang, “Transnational constitutionalism,” 91 – 2.