魔法師的門徒：從美國經驗看我國大法官助理制度與審理案件程序之興革

The Sorcerers’Apprentices:A Comparative Study on Law Clerks at the U.S. Supreme Court and Taiwan Constitutional Court

大部分學者從事違憲審查制度的比較研究，習慣從制度層面切入，而忽略「人」的因素，同時也可能因此錯失觀察制度形成與變遷的一個重要面向。本文從各國襄贊法院從事違憲審查的制度觀察，發現臺灣大法官助理制度的建構，頗受美國經驗影響，其運作的背景與影響，也與美國經驗相近。回顧美國聯邦最高法院大法官助理制度的發展軌跡──從私人秘書、研究助理、助理大法官到魔法師的門徒，審視臺灣大法官助理的運作實際現狀的相似性，本文認為，甫公布施行之司法院組織法，以各級法院法官提調協助大法官辦理解釋憲法與統一解釋法律之實體審查工作，並且將原本各別配屬大法官的大法官助理制度，改成統籌分配以處理程序審查工作等兩項修正，並無法促進違憲審查制度有效運作。興革關鍵在於如何確實增加大法官個別處理案件的人力，並且體認大法官與大法官助理間的「師徒關係」，透過大法官助理協助大法官解釋憲法、體察社會最新脈動與變遷，並在大法官的指導傳承下，有效促進憲法解釋之活力與效率，方能有效改善目前解釋件數低落之現狀，並因應未來司法院大法官審理案件法修正通過後遽增的案件量。

Scholars on comparative constitutionalism in Taiwan put much more emphasis on fundamental theories and scrutiny standards than personnel issues in judicial review and constitutional adjudications. This article offers an institutionalist and socio-legal perspective on how the U.S. Supreme Court (“USSC”) and Taiwan Constitutional Court (“TCC”) perform their work by Justices and their law clerks. The author finds an interesting similarity between the two Courts on historical development of the clerkship and roles and functions of law clerks to Justices. The USSC increased the number of law clerks and improved decision making processes years ago to resolve Justices’ overloading problem; however in the last two decades the TCC’s 15 Justices shared only one law clerk for twice as many cases. The newly revised Organic Act of Judicial Yuan enables Justices to hire judges on loan to TCC as law clerks, replacing existing dedicated law clerks, and making all 15 Justices share a group of Assistants who handles procedural reviews and administrative matters. The author criticizes such arrangement to be impractical, and suggests that the USSC solutions, such as increased number of dedicated law clerks, writ of certiorari and cert pool system, be adopted to effectively improve the performance of constitutional adjudications.