Public Research Edition — August 2026
After the Republic of China lost effective control of mainland China, its constitutional institutions continued in Taiwan under extraordinary wartime and martial-law arrangements. The research separates constitutional continuity from the emergency legal overlays and authoritarian practices that limited normal democratic competition.
Emergency-rule development
The Temporary Provisions and martial-law system created a long period in which constitutional institutions coexisted with exceptional powers and security institutions. This history is used to study how emergency law can outlast the crisis conditions invoked to justify it.
Democratic constitutional transition
Later reforms gradually replaced the frozen first-term representative structure and revised the constitutional system. Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 261, repeal of the Temporary Provisions in 1991, successive Additional Articles, competitive legislative elections and direct presidential election culminated in a democratic constitutional order that remained legally connected to the earlier Constitution while substantially changing its operation.
Peaceful transfer
The 2000 transfer of governing-party power is treated as a key institutional milestone. Current research confirms later official references to a jointly used transition principle, while the original 2000 handover and national-security transition records remain important primary-source targets.
Free China 