Under Article 8 of the Constitution, physical freedom shall be protected, and except in the case of flagrante delicto as provided by law, no person shall be arrested or detained other than by a judicial or a police agency in accordance with procedures provided by law. Further, individuals shall not be tried or punished other than by a court of law in accordance with procedures prescribed by law. Among the punishments provided by the Act are detention and forced labor, which are decided by the police and concern the individual*s physical freedom. It would be desirable to revise the law expeditiously, whereby these punishments will be decided by the courts in accordance with legal procedure, so as to conform to the rule of the Constitution. This tenor has been addressed under this Yuan*s Interpretation No. 166 on November 7, 1980.
Article 28 of the Act provides that "those who are loitering with intent or lazy and habitually commit offenses punishable by the police will receive severer punishments than others. They may be sent to a reformatory or be required to learn living skills in a specific place after being released from a prison." The so-called correction or learning living skills in a specific place are kinds of punishment imposed by the police, which restrict physical freedom. Such punishment is decided by the police and thus is contradictory to Article 8, Paragraph 1, of the Constitution, similar to the situation of the former interpretation. Those procedures relating to correction and learning living skills in a specific place, as well as detention and forced labor, shall be decided in a court under legal procedure. The procedures under the existing law will be null and void after July 1, 1991, and the relevant laws have to be revised by that date. The Interpretation No. 166 has to be complemented.
*Translated by Professor Tsung-fu Chen.