Newsletter
REQUIREMENTS FOR FOREIGN POAS IN TAIWANESE LITIGA-TION
On 2 March 2004, the Judicial Yuan wrote to the Executive Yuan, courts at all levels, the Intel-lectual Property Office (IPO), and bar associa-tions, to state that when a foreign national or entity is involved in civil or administrative liti-gation, if the information in the case files is suf-ficient for the court to determine that its power of attorney or authorization is authentic, but the opposing party deliberately challenges the au-thentic POA without raising reasonable grounds for doubt, then under the provisions of the Codes of Civil and Administrative Procedure, the court may impose a fine of up to NT$30,000.
It was previously proposed that the IPO should establish a temporary mechanism to assist in the verification of foreign litigants' powers of attor-ney. For the time being the IPO will not proceed with this plan, because of fears that such a mechanism would blur the principle that the authenticity of a POA should be judged on the basis of the case files of the individual case, and that it would lead to claims of unreasonable treatment of foreign litigants. As for the pro-posal that the IPO should establish a registration system for officers of foreign companies who have the power to sign on their companies' behalf, the IPO will seek information on the concerns of stakeholders and the application of relevant leg-islation, in order to assess the feasibility and substantive benefits of such a system.