Huang Kuo-chang (Chinese: 黃國昌; pinyin: Huáng Guóchāng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: N̂g Kok-chhiong, born (1973-08-19)19 August 1973) is a Taiwanese politician, legal scholar,[2] and activist. A member of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), he has led the TPP Legislative Yuan caucus since 2024, after being elected from its party list. He has served as the TPP’s chairman since 2025.
Huang was the Rudolf B. Schlesinger Fellow at Cornell Law School from 1999 to 2000, a legal researcher at the University of Tokyo from 2000 to 2001, and a visiting scholar at Cornell from 2001 to 2002.[6] His 2003 doctoral dissertation was titled, "Introducing discovery into civil law",[7] and was supervised by Kevin M. Clermont, Cornell's Robert D. Ziff Professor of Law, and law professors Theodore Eisenberg and Jeffrey J. Rachlinski.[6] Huang joined the Academia Sinica as a researcher in the Institute of Jurisprudence in 2006 and left in 2015.
On 16 December 2017, a recall election was held against Huang [zh] over his support for same-sex marriage.[15] Votes in favor of the recall outnumbered those against, but fell short of the required threshold of one-fourth of the district's total electorate.[16] Huang stepped down as chairman of the New Power Party in January 2019.[17][18] In June 2019, Huang stated that he would leave the New Power Party if it became a "sidekick" of the Democratic Progressive Party,[19] but he denied that he was forming a new political party.[20]
Huang said in August 2019 that he would support the 2020 legislative campaign of Lai Chia-lun [zh], who sought to succeed Huang in New Taipei 12.[21] Though the New Power Party (NPP) backed his return to the Legislative Yuan,[22] it later explored drafting Huang to contest the 2020 Taiwan presidential election.[23][24] Huang refused,[25] and the NPP later announced that it would not nominate a presidential candidate.[26] Huang was offered a position on the NPP party list,[27] on which he was ranked fourth.[28] The NPP won over seven percent of the party list vote, electing only three at-large legislative candidates.[29]
In 2020, Huang cofounded the Taiwan Anti-corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association.[30][31]
On 16 November 2023, Huang announced that he had filed paperwork to join the Taiwan People's Party (TPP).[32] Huang won election to the Legislative Yuan on the TPP's proportional representation party list in the 2024 legislative election.[33] He was subsequently named the TPP caucus convener for the 11th Legislative Yuan.[34] He sits on the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.[35]
Following the resignation of Ko Wen-je from the Taiwan People's Party chairmanship on 1 January 2025, the party's central committee elected Huang as acting chair.[36][37] Shortly after the TPP scheduled a chairmanship by-election for 15 February, Huang declared his candidacy for the position.[38][39] He won the position in a landslide with 8,903 votes to Tsai Pi-ru's 360 votes.[40] He will serve as the TPP's chair until 31 December 2026, when Ko's term was originally scheduled to end.[40]
Kuo-Chang Huang, Kong-Pin Chen, Chang-Ching Lin, 2015, "Party Capability versus Court Preference: Why do the "Haves" Come Out Ahead?-An Empirical Lesson from the Taiwan Supreme Court", Journal of Law Economics & Organization, 31(1), 93–126. (SSCI) (IF: 1.036; SSCI ranking: 37.7%,30.5%)
Kuo-Chang Huang, Chang-Ching Lin, & Kong-Pin Chen, 2014, "Do Rich and Poor Behave Similarly in Seeking Legal Advice? Lessons from Taiwan in Comparative Perspective", Law & Society Review, 48(1), 193–223. (SSCI) (IF: 1.31; SSCI ranking: 22.1%,21.2%)
Kuo-Chang Huang & Chang-Ching Lin, 2014, "Mock Jury Trials in Taiwan—Paving theGround for Introducing Lay Participation", Law and Human Behavior, 38(4), 367–377. (SSCI) (IF: 2.153; SSCI ranking: 7.6%,16.7%)
Book Chapters
Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "The Effect of Stakes on Settlement—An Empirical Lesson from Taiwan", editor(s): Theodore Eisenberg, Giovanni Battista Ramello EDS, Research Handbooks in Comparative Law and Economics, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Kuo-Chang Huang, accepted, "Using Associations as a Vehicle for Class Action—The Case of Taiwan", editor(s): Deborah Hensler, Christ Hodge EDS, Class Action in Context, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
Conference Papers
Kuo-Chang Huang, 2014, "The Impacts of Judicial Reform in Taiwan", paper presented at 4th Brazilian Jurimetrics Conference, Brazil: Brazilian Jurimetrics Association, 2014-05-12 ~ 2014-05-16.[41]
^As a co-convener of the Central Emergency Response Council from 29 August 2024 to 1 January 2025 during Ko's suspension as the party's chair; serving with Lin Fu-nan and Lee Wei-hua.