2024년 민사소송법 개정 착안점 - 2002년 이후 사법수요자의 관점에서

The Aspects of the Revision of the Korean Code of Civil Procedure Viewed from the Perspective of the needs of Judicial Consumers

Since the comprehensive revision of the Korean Code of Civil Procedure(hereafter KCCP) in 2002, the revisions up to 2024 have been characterized as symptomatic treatments in response to one-time demands. In terms of the transition to electronic litigation, the issues were addressed through the enactment of a special law rather than a revision of the KCCP. However, it is noted that these changes also contain only symptomatic adjustments and lack fundamental legal considerations in light of the platform changes. It is asserted that future revisions of the KCCP should reflect fundamental changes in the legal system in accordance with such platform developments. Furthermore, future revisions need to be approached from the perspective of judicial consumers rather than being court-centered. First, from the viewpoint of citizens who are users of judicial procedures, improvements should be made not only to existing procedural tools (such as recognizing the capacity of parties in the association and acknowledging the right to request a transfer) but also to establish new procedural means without hesitation. In particular, I would like to emphasize that changes and additions of parties should be freely permitted during the litigation process. Additionally, to realize the principle of equality of arms between plaintiffs and defendants, it is necessary to reorganize the special jurisdiction. Notably, many direct jurisdiction provisions regarding international jurisdiction were newly established through the comprehensive revision of international private law in 2022. Among these, some aspects may conflict with the territorial jurisdiction provisions stipulated in the KCCP, warranting review and reorganization. Moreover, as the platform of procedural law shifts from paper litigation to electronic litigation, the area of evidence law has become increasingly important; thus, there is an urgent need to revise the document submission obligation sections, which have demonstrated various issues to date. It is also necessary to revise the existing Korean Code of Electronic Document and consider attempts to integrate it into the KCCP. Finally, it is deemed essential to comprehensively improve and integrate the timelines associated with filing appeals including a second instance appeal(Berufung), a review appeal(Revision) and miscellaneous appeal(Beschwerde).