국민의 형사재판 참여

A Study on the Citizen"s Participation in Korean Criminal Trial

  The national assembly of the Republic of Korea legislated for the citizen"s participation system in criminal trial for the first time in 2007. The system was enforced from January 2008 and is mingled with the factors of jury system and the factors of mixed court system [Sch？ffengerichtsbarkeit]. And the system"s destiny will be decided after it"s experimental operation for five years. First, this paper examines the history of the arguments about the adoption of the citizen"s participation system in judicial decision making in Korea. During the late 1920"s, there was an argument about the adoption of the citizen"s participation system in judicial decision making for the first time in Korea. However, it did not come true mainly because Korea was put under Japanese"s colonial rule at the time. Indeed the argument in Korea was caused by the fact that the Japanese Diet passed the Jury Act in 1923. And then it was debated again during the late 1940"s in Korea, but it did not come true similarly. At that time, it was the post-colonial period, thus Korea was in condition that was difficult to adopt the citizen"s participation system in judicial decision making. Subsequently, the government, the justice authorities and civil society have taken interest in the matter since the late 1990"s in Korea. I understand that it stands on the series of democratization having been evolved since the late 1980"s in Korea. In the event, Korea adopted the citizen"s participation system in criminal trial for the first time by legislation in 2007. And then, after examining the contents of the current system, this paper proposes some improvements that can develop the system successfully in Korea.