Agenda Setting in the Taiwan Constitutional Court

Abstract The agenda-setting power of apex courts is important to their survival and success. Nevertheless, most of the literature on this topic has approached it from the perspective of the courts’ public output, not the courts’ private motivations. In this article, I explore how justices serving on the Taiwan Constitutional Court (TCC) exercise their agenda-setting power behind closed doors. Using the declassified minutes of TCC decisions, I show that justices manage their docket according not only to explicit procedural requirements, but also to myriad political, prudential, remedial and collegial factors. By manipulating the TCC’s agenda, justices have expanded its judicial power and judicial legitimacy while avoiding political confrontation. These manipulations, however, have spawned a number of concerns, particularly with respect to rights bearers, judicial deceit and judicial overreach.