군 사법제도의 정당성과 개정 군사법원법의 함의

Justification of Military Justice System and Implication of Amended Military Court Act

While the general justice system is broadly meaningful, including courts, litigation and systems, the military justice system is applied only to military applicants within the military s organization in the event that the military employer commits the offenses set forth in the General and Military Penal Code. This can be said to mean the military criminal justice system among the state penalty exercise system. Specifically, the military criminal justice system covers the entire criminal proceedings of the military, including military investigation procedures, post-investigation prosecution procedures, trial procedures and enforcement procedures. In the meantime, there has been a conflict between the view that the military justice system should be abolished in Korea and the opinion that it should be maintained through improvement of problems. The Ministry of National Defense revised the Military Court Act (Law No. 13722, enacted July 7, 2017) to accept criticism from these discussions. The main contents of the amendment include reduction of the military court installation unit, limited operation of the lay-officer system, restriction of the inspection of the convening authority, restriction of the rank of the military judge and guarantee of the term, respecting the sentencing standards and improving the fairness of the investigation. In this article, we examine the theoretical justification of the military justice system, which has secured its legitimacy through amendments. In the meantime, we will examine how the contents discussed in academic circles are reflected in the amendment. This is to realize the common criminal justice system, the military justice system that reflects the special characteristics of the military in our current security situation, and the ideology of the military justice system, such as military discipline and command rights guarantee.