Jane Kaufman Winn and Tang-chi Yeh. “Advocating Democracy: The Role of Lawyers in Taiwan’s Political Transformation.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 20, no. 2 (1995), 561-599.
While many lawyers in Taiwan have worked against social injustice, whether in promoting nascent social movements or opposition politics, the concept of “lawyering against a repressive state” does not yet seem to be an integral element either of the Taiwanese public’s perception of lawyers or of lawyers’ self-consciousness. However, the process of democratization is rapidly accelerating in Taiwan today, and several institutional reforms have opened up the possibility that lawyers may play a more active role in the future in challenging political oppression. Whether significant numbers of lawyers will in fact come forward in the future to work for political reform remains to be seen. Liberalization of the ROC legal profession has rapidly increased the number of lawyers admitted to the bar. Furthermore, while the transition to democracy remains incomplete, it remains unclear what in the opinion of the people of Taiwan, constitutes a legitimate alternative to authoritarian rule in Taiwan.