Taiwan's Constitutional Court ruled that the old criminal law's deadlines for prosecuting sex crimes against children were unconstitutional, a win for abuse survivors seeking justice years later.

• The court said the pre-2005 version of the law cut off prosecution too soon, ignoring that abused kids often cannot come forward right away.
• The ruling revives 13 cases that were thrown out on time-limit grounds, sending them back to the lower courts.
• One case involved a woman abused by her cousin as a child in the late 1990s who was blocked from filing because the clock had run out.
• Lawmakers already passed a fix in July that pauses the prosecution clock until victims turn 20, and the court says its ruling follows that new rule.
• Three justices publicly dissented, arguing an expired prosecution right should not be brought back through a constitutional challenge.

Outlook: Courts will reopen the affected cases, and lawmakers still need to extend the same protection to crimes involving child sexual images, which the July fix left out.