Disaster Politic, Law and Insurance in Climate Change Era: The Case of Taiwan

Chun-Yuan Lin (download)

As climate-related disasters become more frequent and catastrophic, the capacity of disaster management system is under challenges. Scholars have put efforts on reforming disaster law, yet the impact of politics on disaster management is understated. This article takes Taiwan as a case to study how the disaster management system evolves with the interrelationships between disasters, politics, and law. This article suggests that Confucianism in the past authoritarian times had developed a paternalist disaster politics, which continuingly affects current operation of the disaster management system. Under the influence of paternalist politics, the state takes a primary role in disaster management without a sustainable financial mechanism, which renders citizens passive and indifferent. To better respond to climate change, this article integrates climate change adaptation to disaster management and proposes climate insurance to better distribute disaster risk and enhance the resilience of Taiwan amid a changing climate.

Trusts and Choice of Law Rules in Taiwan

 Ying-Khai Liew (download)

Taiwan has recognised trusts in its general law for 25 years now. However, it does not contain specific choice of law rules applicable to trusts. This is a regrettable state of affairs in our increasingly globalised world, where incidences of cross-border trust disputes will only be on the rise. This paper argues that the lack of a dedicated set of choice of law rules relating to trusts causes much confusion and uncertainty, not only as to how Taiwanese courts would characterise a trust dispute and the inconsistent connecting factors that would apply, but also in relation to the scope of the applicable choice of law rules (whichever they may be) and the special difficulties raised by a breach of trust claim. All these difficulties derogate from a proper recognition of the trust as a distinctive legal device and fail properly to protect the autonomy and legitimate expectations of the parties. These problems can, however, be easily surmounted by adopting the Hague Trusts Convention.

Regulatory Options for Importation of Genome-Edited Foods in Taiwan

Pei-Kan Yang (download)

With rapid advancement in modern biotechnology, the agro-food industry has been engaged in producing foods derived from genome-editing technology to meet the growing demand for food security and nutrition worldwide. Unlike those traditionally recognized as safe, these “novel foods” bring regulatory challenges to the insurance of food safety and legal issues over consistency with existing framework of food safety governance. Despite the thriving cultivation of genome-edited crops worldwide, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) adopted the policy that neither genetic modified nor edited crops are allowed to plant in the field. Therefore, the genome-edited food products in Taiwan, if any, will come most likely from abroad through importation, and the regulatory pressure will fall stressfully on Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) rather than the COA. Against such background, this paper will examine possible legal challenges for importing genome-edited food products under current food laws, and explore policy options and considerations for regulation of genome-edited foods in Taiwan. This paper argues that Taiwan FDA could adopt a more cautious strategy toward imported genome-edited foods, in contrast to genome-edited crops as currently permitted for plantation in some countries. Moreover, a categorical case-by-case regulatory approach mixed with product-and-process based considerations can be adopted in tandem with early consultation in order to achieve a more balanced outcome in accommodating various policy objectives and multiple interests involved in the field of newly advanced genome-editing technology.