Grace Periods and Suspension Orders for Constitutional Remedies: Lessons from the Taiwan Constitutional Court

Although suspension orders have gradually become a popular constitutional remedy in many jurisdictions, most literature on this topic pays scant attention to the length of grace periods. Nonetheless, one should not mistake this academic neglect for a lack of importance, as the length of grace periods is sometimes more controversial than suspension orders per se. Using recently declassified court minutes, interviews, memoirs, and other sources, in this Article, I demonstrate how justices on the Taiwan Constitutional Court determined the lengths of grace periods on the basis of three main factors: prudential considerations, practicality, and hierarchy in remedial law. I then evaluate the utility of grace periods and explain how these delicately crafted tools have sometimes succeeded in forging alliances with political stakeholders and in cajoling the political branches of the Taiwanese government into adhering to court decisions.