October 2, 2016
No.215
Senator Dr. Till Steffen, minister of justice for the state of Hamburg, Germany, is visiting the Republic of China (Taiwan) from October 2 to 4 to attend the Lay Participation International Symposium, held in Taipei between October 3 and 5, and to gain a better understanding of both Taiwan’s judicial system and the new ROC administration.
During his stay in Taiwan, Senator Steffen will call at the Judicial Yuan, which will host a dinner in his honor, as well as visit the Judges Academy, the Taipei District Court’s hi-tech courtrooms, and the German Institute Taipei. He will also visit sites of cultural and economic interest such as the National Palace Museum and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Furthermore, Senator Steffen will also join other German participants of the seminar—namely, Dr. Jan Grotheer, president of the German-Taiwanese Jurist Society; Dr. Britta Erbguth, presiding judge at Hamburg District Court; Prof. Karsten Gaede, Bucerius Law School; and Prof. Arndt Sinn of Osnabrück University’s School of Law—in attending a luncheon hosted by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chih-Chung Wu.
Taiwan and German maintain close judicial exchanges and interactions, with ROC judicial delegations paying regular visits to Germany to study its legal system. Senator Steffen made arrangements to receive one such Taiwanese judicial delegation at Hamburg City Hall in 2015.
The German-Taiwanese Jurist Society, established in 1990 in Hamburg, is a civil organization dedicated to the promotion of bilateral legal exchanges between Taiwan and Germany. The society has helped district courts in both Taipei and Hamburg to establish an alliance, as well as assisted the Judges Association of the Republic of China to join the International Association of Judges, as such making a significant contribution towards the development of substantive Taiwanese-German relations. (E)