Premier Sean C. Chen said May 26 Taiwan's financial laws are worthy of recognition because their core priorities are to maintain the quality of financial institutions and the stability of the financial system, which is why the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis had only a limited impact on the country.
The premier made the remarks at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Thematic Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Taipei. More than 200 academics and experts of law from 40 countries attended the three-day event hosted by the National Taiwan University (NTU).
Chen, a seasoned banker, told the audience that he himself benefited greatly from the legal training he obtained through the years working for local banks, the financial sector and the Ministry of Finance after attaining an LL.M (Master of Laws) degree at NTU. The premier also published several books about financial law such as Comparative Banking Laws.
Codification was one of the themes of the conference. Chen said a longtime point of contention is whether a codified or uncodified legal system would better suit Taiwan. While the Republic of China's legal code is modeled after the codified systems of continental Europe, it has also incorporated aspects of the uncodified system of England and the United States, the premier noted.
Drawing on his experience, he said that although codification is often seen in the financial world, there are no significant differences in financial development between countries with codified and uncodified legal systems.
"While banking systems vary widely from country to country, legal codification and transplant are shared experiences through which people can learn from one another," Chen emphasized.
Finally, the premier expressed hope that the participants would take the knowledge they gained at the forum back to their own countries to facilitate future studies in comparative law.
According to the NTU, this was the first time that the Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law was held in Asia in the 80 years since the academy's establishment. NTU officials said the event helped increase legal academic exchange between Taiwan and other countries, introduce Taiwan's legal system to the rest of the world, and make Taiwan's legal research better known in the greater legal community.