국민참여재판의 개시요건에 대한 비판적 고찰

A Critical Study for OpeningRequirements of The Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial

Our criminal justice system introduced a new system that is called "The Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial" in 2008. The citizens' participation trial as new trial is testing now. That test operation period is over in 2012 and one year later, we had to decide whether to abolish this new trial system after reviewing test results for five years. However The prospects for this participation trial system are not bright. Because the judicial citizens' participation trial come face to face with a crisis right now. Especially, more than all, it is a typical example of this crisis that the implementation rate of participation trial is very low. The cause of this crisis is as in the following. 1. low rates of application 2. high rates of withdrawal 3. high rates of exclusion Therefore, one year later, to prevent from being abolished this new trial system, we need to come up with measures to vitalize the Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial. In line with this thinking, something to notice here is the opening requirements of the Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial. Under current law, to initiate criminal proceedings as the Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial, the following requirements must be satisfied. 1. the case should be belong to the subject range of application in Article 5 2. the accused should submit an application including expressions that he want to receive the Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial 3. the exclusion reasons provided in Article 9 should be no From among these opening requirements, the second requirement is largely responsible for critical situations that the implementation rate of participation trial is very low. Thus, to overcome this kind of situation, we need to (1) scale down the subject range of application of Article 3 under current law, (2) carry out the obligatory citizens' participation trial within the demagnified range of application. In short, something needed to vitalize the Judicial Citizens' Participation Trial is the selection and concentration through the reduction of application case and the compulsory opening of the citizens' participation trial than an increase in quantity by the expansion of application case.