| ID | 080296 |
| Title Proper | State secrets privilege |
| Other Title Information | origins, parameters, and application |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Hsueh, Chao-yung |
| Publication | 2007. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | On January 25, 2007, for the first time in Taiwan's history, President Chen
Shui-bian filed a request for a constitutional interpretation and invoked the state
secrets privilege in an attempt to shield the first lady from a corruption trial. The
interpretation sparked a national uproar and many in the media voiced criticism of the
president. The controversy centered on the assertion by the grand justices that the
president enjoys "special privilege over state secrets," and that he alone can decide
what is a state secret. Some argued that this is a "super umbrella" of protection
tailored for the president, which may lead to the creation of a dictatorship and allow a
ruler to cheat the people in the name of "protecting national secrets."
The state secrets privilege has been described as the "nuclear bomb of legal
tactics," which is most often used by the executive branch in civil court cases to
protect against subpoenas, discovery motions, or other judicial requests for
information. Based the application of this privilege in the United States, we find that
state secrets privilege is increasingly subject to abuse and is wrongly used to protect
the executive branch from embarrassment, to hide criminal activity, and to thwart
legal requests for information and close off investigations.
We argue that the state secrets privilege should be treated as qualified, not
absolute. Otherwise there is no adversary process in court and no exercise of
judicial independence over available evidence. The judiciary should take steps to
prevent the state secrets privilege from remaining a license for executive overreaching,
and to prevent injustice from being committed in the name of secrecy |
| `In' analytical Note | Issues and Studies Vol. 43,No. 4; Dec 2007: p185-225 |
| Journal Source | Issues and Studies Vol. 43,No. 4; Dec 2007: p185-225 |
| Key Words | Executive Privilege ; State Secrets Privilege ; National Security ; Judicial Review |