In new democracies, if the original constitution is not written with an inter-
national spirit, subsequent constitutional revisions may undertake certain efforts to
change it.^38 Rewriting the list of constitutionally protected rights in accordance
with major international human rights documents has been typical in the consti-
tutional revisions of the many new democracies.^39 In Taiwan, however, the seven
rounds of constitutional revisions throughout the 1990 s and 2000 s did not touch
upon issues concerning international human rights, nor did they involve the
rewriting of constitutionally protected rights. Nearly all the constitutional revisions
ever undertaken addressed issues concerning separation of powers among insti-
tutions. Constitutional codification of international human rights laws has been
considerably limited in Taiwan even after democratization began in the 1990 s.
As an alternative, domestic legislative actions play an important role in filling the
gap. While there are a few judicial references to international human rights laws in
constitutional interpretations, a stronger trend in statutory incorporation of inter-
national human rights laws has taken place in Taiwan. The most recent example
was the enactment of the implementation Act regarding the two international
covenants, the ICCPR and ICESCR. The key actor behind the increase of statutory
incorporation of various human rights treaties has been nongovernmental organiza-
tions (NGOs) in the course of their rights advocacy. These globally minded citizens
and NGOs have built an intermediating transnational/constitutional regime, where
both international and domestic human rights laws coincide, forming a distinctive
model of “bottom-up transnational constitutionalism.”
40
Joining the WTO and signing the ECFA
Trade is another field in which Taiwan has been able to connect itself to the
international community. International trade is one of the rare fields in which
Taiwan has been successfully making its presence felt in international organiza-
tions. Taiwan’s participation in the world trade system began in the late 1940 s.
However, despite the fact that the ROC was one of the original signatories of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the KMT government withdrew
from GATT in 1950 , in part because it could no longer fulfill trade commitments of
mainland China, and was subsequently expelled in 1971.^41 Nevertheless, Taiwan’s
(^38) See e.g. Duc V. Trang, “Beyond the historical justice debate: the incorporation of
international law and the impact on constitutional structures and rights in Hungary”
( 1995 ) 28 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law 1 at 11 – 12.
(^39) See V.S. Vereshchetin, “Some reflections on the relationship between international law
and national law in the light of new constitutions,” in Rein Mu ̈llerson et al. (eds.),
Constitutional Reform and International Law in Central and Eastern Europe(The Hague:
Kluwer Law International, 1998 ), p. 5.
(^40) Chang, “Bottom-up transnational constitutionalism,” 230.
(^41) Concerning Taiwan’s history of participating in international trade and the WTO, see Lori
Fisler Damrosch, “GATT membership in a changing world order: Taiwan, China and the
former Soviet republics” ( 1992 ) 1992 Columbia Business Law Review 19 at 24.