개정 형사소송법의 범죄피해자 보호규정

Victim Protection of New Criminal Procedure Law

Korean Criminal Procedure Law, established in 1954, widely adopted the basic principles of democratic criminal procedure under the enormous influence from the Ordinance No.176 of U.S. Military Government Office in Korea in May 1948. However, during the military autocracy since the military codetta in 1961, the Revitalizing Reforms in October 1973 and a military revolt in December 1980, the principles of [due process of the law] and [protection of human rights] were severely damaged for the sake of the political objectives. In this period, the increase of efficiency in Justice and maintenance of social order was regarded as the most important thing by the autocracy technocrats. From 1990s, as the economic development and advance of democracy, the principles of due process of criminal law began to be gradually restored. In June 2007, by the extensive reform of Korean Criminal Procedure Law, the elements of American criminal justice system were intensified, eg adversary system, direct examination and oral proceedings etc. Moreover protection of the rights of suspects, defendants and victims has been reinforced. Especially new Criminal Procedure Law has introduced several provisions for the victims protection. The new system could be very conductive to improve human rights protection and due process in Korean criminal procedure. We have analysed the new victims protection system of criminal procedure on the comparative perspective and predicted the possibilities of its realization. However, it depends on the practice whether the new criminal justice system function properly since it is a brand-new for Korean Practitioners. Therefore, Korean criminal justice institutions must hurry to build up the training system for converting awareness of its officials and improving traditional practices.