Editing Legislative Yuan (section)

==History==
{{more citations needed section|date=May 2011}}

===Constitutional theory===
[[File:Library Stamp - 國民政府立法院.jpg|thumb|A stamp from the Legislative Yuan Library when it was based in [[Nanjing]]]]

The concept of Legislative Yuan was introduced by [[Sun Yat-sen]]'s ''[[Three Principles of the People]]''. The theory proposed a [[separation of powers]] into five branches ({{zh|t=五院|p=wǔyuàn|poj=gō͘-īⁿ|labels=no}}). The Legislative Yuan, under Sun's political theory, is a branch of government elected by the [[National Assembly (Republic of China)|National Assembly]] that serves as the standing legislative body when the National Assembly is not in session.

The legislators are to be elected through [[direct election]]s. In the constitution, Legislative Yuan, together with National Assembly and [[Control Yuan]], form three chambers of a [[Tricameralism|tricameral parliament]] according to the [[Judicial Yuan]]'s interpretation number 76 of the Constitution (1957).<ref>{{lang|zh-hant|[[:wikisource:zh:司法院釋字第76號解釋|司法院釋字第76號解釋]]}},
{{Cite web |date=3 May 1957 |title=Judicial Yuan interpretation number 76 | url=https://www2.judicial.gov.tw/FYDownload/en/p03_01.asp?expno=76 |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=[[Judicial Yuan]] | archive-date=17 December 2004| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041217134214/http://www.judicial.gov.tw/constitutionalcourt/EN/p03_01.asp?expno=76 |url-status=live}}</ref>

However, the later [[constitutional amendment]]s in the 1990s removed the parliamentary roles from National Assembly and Control Yuan and transferred them to the Legislative Yuan, which became an [[Unicameralism|unicameral parliament]].

===Establishment and relocation to Taiwan===
[[File:Legislative Yuan (1928) in Nanjing, Nov 2017.jpg|thumb|Former Legislative Yuan building in Nanjing, 1928 (seen in 2017).]]
[[File:Former Legislative Yuan & Control Yuan in Nanjing 2011-10.JPG|thumb|Former Legislative Yuan and [[Control Yuan]] building in Nanjing,  1946–1949 (seen in 2011).]]

The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original capital of [[Nanjing]] after the completion of the [[Northern Expedition]]. Its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, and its term in office was extended to 14 years because of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] (1937–1945). According to KMT political theory, these first four sessions marked the period of [[political tutelage]].

The current [[Constitution of the Republic of China]] came into effect on 25 December 1947, and the first Legislative session convened in Nanjing on 18 May 1948, with 760 members. Six preparatory meetings had been held on 8 May 1948, during which [[Sun Fo]] and [[Chen Li-fu]] were elected president and vice president of the body. In 1949, [[mainland China]] fell to the [[Communist Party of China|Communist Party]] and the Legislative Yuan (along with the entire ROC government) was transplanted to [[Taipei]]. On 24 February 1950, 380 members convened at the Sun Yat-sen Hall in Taipei.

The first Legislative Yuan was to have been elected for a term of three years ending in 1951; however, the fall of mainland China made it impossible to hold new elections.<ref name="Fetzer">[[Joel S. Fetzer]], J Christopher Soper, Confucianism, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_929g2KkSwIC&pg=PA58 Democratization, and Human Rights in Taiwan], p 58, Lexington Books, 15 October 2012.</ref> As a result, the [[Judicial Yuan]] decided that the members of the Legislative Yuan would continue to hold office until new elections could be held on the Mainland. This decision was made in the belief that the KMT would retake the Mainland in a short time. However, over the years, as the prospect of regaining the Mainland diminished, this meant that the legislators from mainland districts (and members of the ruling KMT) held their seats for life, in a one-party system. The body thus came to be called "the Non-reelected Congress".<ref name="Fetzer"/>

Over the years, deceased members elected on the mainland were not replaced while additional seats were created for [[Taiwan]] starting with eleven seats in 1969. Fifty-one new members were elected to a three-year term in 1972, fifty-two in 1975, ninety-seven in 1980, ninety-eight in 1983, one hundred in 1986, and one hundred thirty in 1989. Although the elected members of the Legislative Yuan did not have the majority to defeat legislation, they were able to use the Legislative Yuan as a platform to express [[political dissent]]. Opposition parties were formally illegal until 1991, but in the 1970s candidates to the Legislative Yuan would run as [[Tangwai movement|Tangwai]] ("outside the party"), and in 1985 candidates began to run under the banner of the [[Democratic Progressive Party]].

===Democratization===
The members of the Legislative Yuan with extended terms remained until 31 December 1991, when as part of subsequent Judicial Yuan ruling they were forced to retire and the members elected in 1989 remained until the 161 members of the Second Legislative Yuan were elected in December 1992. The third LY, elected in 1995, had 157 members serving 3-year terms. The fourth LY, elected in 1998, was expanded to 225 members in part to include legislators from the abolished provincial legislature of [[Taiwan Province]]. The Legislative Yuan greatly increased its prominence after the [[2000 Taiwan presidential election|2000 presidential elections]] in Taiwan when the [[Executive Yuan]] and [[President of the Republic of China|presidency]] was controlled by the [[Democratic Progressive Party]] while the Legislative Yuan had a large majority of [[Kuomintang]] members. The legislative elections in late 2001 produced a contentious situation in which the [[pan-blue coalition]] has only a thin majority over the governing [[pan-green coalition]] in the legislature,<ref name="Carr">{{Cite web|url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/taiwan/taiwan2001.txt |title=Taiwan |year=2001 |last=Carr |first=Adam |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041012143734/http://psephos.adam-carr.net/taiwan/taiwan2001.txt |archive-date=October 12, 2004 }}</ref> making the passage of bills often dependent on the votes of a few defectors and independents. Because of the party situation there have been constitutional conflicts between the Legislative Yuan and the executive branch over the process of appointment for the [[Premier of the Republic of China|premier]] and whether the president has the power to call a special session.

Amid 70% public support, the Legislative Yuan voted 217–1 on 23 August 2004 for a package of amendments to:
* Halve the number of seats from 225 to 113
* Switch to a single-member district [[parallel voting]] electoral system
* Increase the terms of members from 3 to 4 years, to synchronize the legislative and presidential elections. (The change was implemented for the next election cycle, as the [[2008 Taiwan legislative election|legislative election]] was held in January 2008, and the [[2008 Taiwan presidential election|presidential election]] followed in March.)

The new electoral system installed in 2008 includes 73 plurality seats (one for each electoral district), 6 seats for [[Taiwan aborigine|aboriginals]], with the remaining 34 seats to be filled from [[party-list proportional representation|party lists]]. Every county has a minimum of 1 electoral district, thereby guaranteed at least one seat in the legislature, while half of the proportionally represented seats drawn from party lists must be women.

Additionally, the Legislative Yuan proposed to abolish the National Assembly. Future amendments would still be proposed by the LY by a three-fourths vote from a quorum of at least three-fourths of all members of the Legislature. After a mandatory 180-day promulgation period, the amendment would have to be ratified by an absolute majority of ''all'' eligible voters of the ROC ''irrespective'' of voter turnout. The latter requirement would allow a party to kill a referendum proposal by asking that their voters boycott the vote as was done by the KMT with the referendums associated with the [[2004 Taiwan presidential election|2004 presidential election]].

A DPP proposal to allow the citizens the right to initiate constitutional referendums was pulled off the table, due to a lack of support. The proposal was criticized for dangerously lowering the threshold for considering a constitutional amendment. Whereas a three-fourths vote of the LY would require that any proposed constitutional amendment have a broad political [[Consensus decision-making|consensus]] behind it, a citizen's initiative would allow a fraction of the electorate to force a constitutional referendum. It was feared that allowing this to occur would result in a referendum on [[Taiwan independence]] which would likely result in a crisis with the [[People's Republic of China]].

The Legislative Yuan also proposed to give itself the power to summon the president for an annual "state of the nation" address and launch a [[Recall election|recall]] of the president and vice president (proposed by one fourth and approved by two thirds of the legislators and be submitted to a nationwide referendum for approval or rejection by majority vote). The Legislative Yuan will also have the power to propose the [[impeachment]] of the president or vice president to the [[Council of Grand Justices]].

An ''ad hoc'' National Assembly was [[2005 Taiwan National Assembly election|elected and formed in 2005]] to ratify the amendments. The downsized Legislative Yuan took effect after [[2008 Taiwan legislative election|the 2008 elections]].

On 20 July 2007, the Legislative Yuan passed a [[Lobbying]] Act.<ref>Shih Hsiu-chuan [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/07/21/2003370609 "Taiwan becomes third country to pass Lobbying Act"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929153542/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/07/21/2003370609 |date=2007-09-29 }}'', Taipei Times, 7/21/2007''</ref>