독립적 특별수사기구의 도입방안에 관한 연구

A Study on the Introduction of the Independent Investigation Office against the High-ranking Officials’Crimes

This article deals with the proposal for the bill of 『the Independent Investigation Office against the High-ranking Officials’ Crimes』 in 2010 by People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy(PSPD), and with the 5 bills introduced by the members of the 18th Korean National Assembly. This proposal for the bill was first introduced in 1996, again in 2002, and yet again in 2010, followed by many bills, but it only failed to pass. Now it is already brought up again the new 19th National Assembly. The Independent Investigation Office was, at first, designed against the corruption of high-ranking public official (Anti-Corruption Model). But the situation in Korea has made it as a new choice for the control the power abuse of the Korean Prosecutor’s Office (Checks-and-Balances Model). Its focus has been gradually shifted from the Anti-Corruption Model to the Checks-and-Balances Model, because the Prosecution in Korea is being charged with the uncontrolled power and the political partiality. Naturally the Korean Prosecutors’ Office repulses another investigating organization, because it is mainly based on the mistrust of the Prosecutors’ Office and a new investigation office could drastically reduce its power. In this article, I have scrutinized the proposal and bills and compare them from the viewpoint of the Checks-and-Balances Model. And thereby I suggest, as a conclusion, that the introduction of “the Independent Investigation Office” should enable the prosecution to be more independent from political influences and to be the effective remedy against the mistrust of the criminal justice system.