민사소송법상 증거조사절차에 있어 비밀보호

Protection of Secret in Evidence-gathering Proceeding of Civil Procedure This Article will explore how the evidence-gathering proceeding of Civil Procedure Code protects individual s confidential information, trade secrets, and national secrets. Especially, the Article s focus is on protection of privacy or trade secret in the proceeding. The current Civil Procedure Code in Korea recognizes six kinds of evidence-collecting methods: (i) document; (ii) expert opinion; (iii) inspection; (iv) examination of parties; (v) examination of witnesses; (vi) other evidence related to new IT. The Code allows courts to examine documentary evidence, expert opinion, and other evidence related to new IT, to carry out inspection, and to commission specific institution and person to examine evidence or produce document. These types of evidence-gathering take place prior to open oral proceeding. However, examination of parties or witness, in principle, will be carried out in public oral proceeding according to the Code. We can infer from the evidence-collecting proceeding that the confidential information of parties, witnesses, or third persons may be exposed to others through examination of parties or witness. Also, even if proof-taking is carried out in camera prior to oral proceeding, disclosure to parties doctrine permits the one party(or parties) to identify the other party s (or parties ) confidential information. Due to the concern mentioned above, protection of privacy or trade secret is increasingly important issue in the field of civil procedure. First of all, the Article will deal with its constitutional foundations to find out the solution to the issue. Afterwards, disclosure to parties doctrine and in camera proceeding will be discussed. Next, the Article delves into several issues pertinent to each evidence-gathering method. Finally, the Article concludes that the means protecting secret of individual or entities will depend on who has the confidential information and who has to be protected from the exposure of the information.