｜ Official documents banning the periodical Long Live Elections Courtesy of: Liao Wei-min 16 The cover of Long Live Elections Courtesy of: Liao Wei-min Chapter 1 shall take orders from the supreme commander of the area under martial law. In addition, Article 8 specifically gives the military discretionary power over 10 criminal offenses that should be tried judicially, stipulating that “military agencies may try cases on their own or hand them over to general courts”. These 10 criminal offenses include Offenses Against the Internal Security of the State, Offenses Against the External Security of the State, Offenses of Interference with Public Order, Offenses Against Public Safety, Offenses of Counterfeiting Currency, Offenses of Counterfeiting Securities, Offenses of Forging Instruments or Seals, Offenses of Homicide, Offenses Against Abandonment, Offenses of Abrupt Taking, Robbery and Piracy, Offenses of Extortion and Kidnapping for Ransom, Offenses of Destruction, Abandonment, and Damage of Property. In other words, Article 7 and Article 8 of the Martial Law not only violate the separation of powers and checks and balances but also severely infringe judicial rights. They also violate Article 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of China, which stipulates that “except for those in active military service, no person shall be subject to trial by a military tribunal.” Additionally, they also fail to comply with Articles 6 to 11 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has provisions concerning personal freedom requiring “principle of legality”, “due process”, “prohibition of torture”, and “fair and impartial trials”. Over 30 regulations were enacted according to the Martial Law, and they had far-reaching influences. The so-called political party ban, press ban, the Government Information Office’s film and TV show inspection system (all films and TV shows must be ｜ Martial Law: Derailing From International Human Rights Trends submitted for review), and even school hairstyle regulations stemmed from these regulations. These regulations included the Measures for the Implementation of Regulations to Prevent Illegal Assemblies, Associations, Demonstrations, Petitions, and Strikes During Martial Law; Regulations Governing Newspapers, Periodicals, and Books under Martial Law; Betrayers Punishment Act; Regulations on Reporting and Purging Communist Spies; and Educational Guidelines During the Nation’s Reconstruction Period. In a constitutional democracy, martial law is supposed to be an emergency power in times of major natural disasters, invasion, or civil conflicts, authorizing the leader of the nation to adopt emergency measures or military control to temporarily restrict people’s partial freedom in proportion to the state of emergency. Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also has provisions on the exercise of national emergency powers. However, martial law typically lasts for a short period of time and must be reviewed and ratified by the parliament being announced. Parliament should also examine whether the emergency measures taken are excessive. However, the authoritarian government used “suppression of communist rebellion” and “anticommunist and anti-Russian aggression” as political excuses to impose martial law for 38 years and 56 days. Furthermore, the National Assembly had not undergone a complete re-election at the time and did not legitimately represent the general will of the people in Taiwan. These were serious violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights signed by the ROC. 17