공판절차에서 피해자의 지위에 관한 비교법적 고찰

The Comparative Study of the Victim’s Status in a Criminal Trial

This paper is concentrated on the comparative study of the criminal victim’s status in a criminal trial. Victims have the two different kinds of role – one is related to the examination of a witness and the other is the right to participate in the trial process as a so called stakeholder. Three legal systems are analyzed in this paper, besides South Korean criminal procedure law. Japan has the well balanced system to be equipped with both a guarantee of the victim’s free testimony and a chance for victims to state their opinions as interested parties. Meanwhile, German is the representative nation which offers victims the right to participate in a trial, including Privatklage and Nebenklage. The criminal justice system of U.S. is also known to have the average level of apparatus for victims, especially VIS and VOS. Compared with those countries, South Korean legal system lacks the victim’s right to participate in trial as a stakeholder, while leaning toward the use of victims for getting testimony. Under such a comparative analysis, this paper proposes to introduce the new system to enable victims active participation in a criminal trial into South Korean criminal procedure law.