There is a new trend in the Taiwanese environmental movements:using litigation to achieve their goals. There are several factors whichhave facilitated the new trend. They include the crisis of the legality of anEnvironmental Impact Assessment, the decline in the mobilization of socialmovements, judicial independence, and the appearance of environmentallawyers. Although environmental lawyers and social movementorganizations have won several lawsuits, the impacts of victories in courtsare limited.

This paper will point out that the rise of judicial politics is a new phenomenon in Taiwan. However, unlike law scholars who characterize Taiwan’s Constitutional Court justices as Taiwan’s top constitutional reformers, I will contend that the rise of judicial politics is attributable mostly to the judicial reform led by young judges and prosecutors from the bottom of the judicial hierarchy. The main types of judicial politics include investigation on politician’s corruption and vote-buying activities, rampant electoral disputation, and politicians’ use of the law as a political weapon.