Contents
1. Litigating in Korea: a general overview of Korean civil procedure_Youngjoon
Kwon
2. Why do we pursue 'oral proceedings'
in our legal system?_Hyun Seok
Kim
3. The reformed criminal procedure of post-democratization South Korea_Kuk Cho
4. The role of the public prosecutor in Korea: is he
half-judge?_Heekyoon
Kim
5. The admissibility of suspect
interrogation record in the new era of Korean criminal procedure_Yong Chui
Park
6. The structure and basic principles of constitutional
adjudication in the
Republic of Korea_Jongcheol
Kim
7. Democratic legitimacy of law and the constitutional
adjudication in the Republic of Korea_Woo-young
Rhee
8. Korean Constitutional Court and the
due process clause_Jibong Lim
9. Administrative litigation in Korea: structures and roles in judicial review_Hee-Jung
Lee
10. Korean administrative cases in 'law and development' context_Daein
Kim
11. Principles and structure of patent litigation_Sang Jo Jong
Contributors
Kuk Cho is a Professor of Law at Seoul National University School of Law and a Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. He received an LL.B. in 1986 and an LL.M. in 1989 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 1995 and a J.S.D. in 1997 from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law; was a Visiting Scholar, University of Leeds Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, UK (1998); a Visiting Research Fellow, University of Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, UK (1998); and a Visiting Scholar, Harvard-Yenching Institute (2005 ― 2006).
Sang Jo Jong is a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Seoul National University School of Law and a Director at the SNU Center for Law & Technology. He received an LL.B. in 1982 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1991 from London School of Economics, UK; was a Visiting Professor teaching comparative intellectual property law at Duke Law School in 2003; and was a Visiting Professor teaching comparative intellectual property laws at Georgetown Law Center in 2007.
Hyun Seok Kim is a Judge in Seongnam Branch Court of Suwon District Court. He received an LL.B. in 1989 and an LL.M. in 1997 from Seoul National University College of Law; was a Visiting Scholar, Columbia Law School in New York, US (2000); and was a Director of Judicial Policy in the Supreme Court of Korea.
Daein Kim is an Assistant Professor of Law at Ewha Womans University School of Law. He received an LL.B. in 1994, an LL.M. in 1997 and a Ph.D in 2006 from Seoul National University College of Law; and was a Visiting Scholar, George Washington University Law School, US (2010).
Heekyoon Kim is an Assistant Professor of Law at Sungshin Women's University. He received an LL.B. in 1990 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 2002 and a J.S.D. in 2005 from the Indiana University at Bloomington.
Jongcheol Kim is an Associate Professor of Law at Yonsei University School of Law. He received an LL.B. in 1988 and an LL.M. in 1990 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 1994 and a Ph.D. in Law in 1998 from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He workedas a Research Official of the Constitutional Court of Korea and as an Assistant Professor at Hanyang University College of Law, Seoul (1999 ― 2003).
Youngjoon Kwon is an Assistant Professor of Law at Seoul National University School of Law. He received an LL.B. in 1994 and an LL.M. in 2000 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 2004 from Harvard Law School; was a judge in various courts (1999 ― 2006); and is a Visiting Scholar at Duke Law School (2009 ― 2010).
Hee-Jung Lee is an Associate Professor of Law at Korea University School of Law. She received an LL.B. in 1989, an LL.M. in 1993 and a Ph.D. in 2004 from Seoul National University College of Law; and an LL.M. in 2000 from Georgetown University Law-Center.
Jibong Lim is a Professor of Law at Sogang Univeristy Law School and the Director of Sogang University Institute for Legal Studies. He is also an Executive Director at the Korean Constitutional Law Association. He received an LL.B. in 1990 and an LL.M. in 1993 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. in 1996 and a J.S.D. in 1999 from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law; and was a Visiting Researcher, University of California at Berkeley School of Law (1999 ― 2002).
Yong Chul Park is an Associate Professor of Law at Sogang University Law School. He received an LL.B. in 1999 from Sogang University and an LL.M. in 2003 from the George Washington University; an LL.M. in 2002 and a J.S.D. in 2006 from Cornell University; and was a Visiting Scholar, Cornell University Law School (2007).
Woo-young Rhee is an Associate Professor of Law at Seoul National University School of Law in Seoul, Korea. She received an LL.B. degree in 1994 and an LL.M. degree in 1996 from Seoul National University College of Law; an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 1997; and a J.S.D. degree from Stanford Law School in 2001. She practiced law as an attorney in the State of California in the US from 2001 to 2003 until she joined the faculty of Seoul National University in 2004.
Preface
The nationwide 'June Struggle' of 1987 led to the collapse of Korea's authoritarian-military regime and opened a road toward democratization. Korea has achieved political democracy following rapid economic growth. These changes were accompanied by the change of law and legal system.
Since 1987, the rule of law has rapidly replaced the rule of man and the procedural democracy has been taken seriously in Korea. Throughout the democratization process of the nation, litigation has played a crucial role as an instrument to solve most challenging civic and social conflicts with much greater and multifaceted ramifications in the nation's political, constitutional, societal and cultural domains.
The legal structure and the adjudicatory institutions surrounding litigation have been also reconstructed. For example, Korea's Code of Civil Procedure has been revised and its focus has shifted from the written dossiers to the oral elements of the litigation including oral testimony in a concentrated, continuous and uninterrupted trial that is open to the public as a matter of principle, for further openness and transparency. The Code of Criminal Procedure has been substantially reshuffled particularly in the field of procedural rights and evidence law. A jury system was recently introduced for the first time in the nation's legal history in serious felony cases in 2008. The Constitutional Court, which was established by the 1987 Constitution, has vigorously reviewed the constitutionality of legislation by the nation's legislative body, the National Assembly. The Administrative Court, which was newly established in 1994, has actively checked administrative discretions for possible abuses thereof.
There has been a longstanding demand both domestically and overseas for a publication on this subject in the English language, from scholars and students, governments and lawyers. This book is the first publication in the English language that provides a comprehensive picture of litigation in Korea and the relevant laws, institutional designs, judicial institutions and some of the important court decisions. The authors of this book are selected from among promising legal scholars and judges in Korea who have gained their legal education in the Anglo-American traditions. I am grateful to them for their unfailing cooperation. I should like to express my particular thanks to Professor In Seop Chung of the School of Law, Seoul National University. When he was a director of the Law Research Institute, Seoul National University, he first suggested the publication of this book and has been supportive and encouraging. The Journal of Korean Law, which is published by the School of Law, Seoul National University, has kindly allowed me to include the authors' articles in this book.
Kuk Cho
July 2009
