Korean Constitutional Court System

Since its establishment in 1988, the Constitutional Court of Korea has gained significant reputation on constitutionalism construction. This paper discusses the Korean constitutional court system mainly in the aspects of backgrounds, contents and actual effects. First of all, the paper focuses on the evolvement of Korean constitutional adjudication system and analyse the embarrassment and outlet with which Korea are confronted in its constitutionalism construction; secondly, the paper reviews the constitutional status, organization, jurisdiction and procedure of Korean Constitutional Court; lastly, the paper analyses the function of Constitutional Court in Korea's constitutionalism construction from the aspects of democratic politics, rule of law and human rights protection. On the base of the above-mentioned research, the author brings forward several revelatory remarks on the establishment and perfection of constitutional adjudication system in developing countries; and the author also points out the defects of the Korean constitutional court system.Chapter One is about the evolvement of Korean constitutional adjudication system and the embarrassment confronted by Korea before its political transformation started in the late 1980s. As the first Asian country which adopted the constitutional court system, Korea's efforts on the construction of modern constitutionalism and the establishment of the Constitutional Court are far away from plain sailing, but suffering numerous frustrations. Before its political transformation started in the late 1980s, Korea's constitutionalism construction had been always stayed with embarrassments. As a result, the constitutional adjudication systems that stipulated in the constitution could not fullfil its systemtic function and only existed as the democratic ornaments of dictatorship. The author points out that the reasons for the embarrassments could be traced in Korea's culture tradition, colonial history and the hard international situation of Korean peninsula after World War II.Chapter Two mainly analyses the establishment of the current constitution court of Korea on the backgrounds of the economic and social development and political transformation. During the period from 1960s to 1980s, Korea's social change brought about by its economic development began to chanllenging the legality of authoritarianism, and later promoted the Korea's political transformation from authoritarianism to democracy. Therefore, we may say that the Constitutional Court is one of the outcomes of political transformation. The creation of Korean Constitutional Court's jurisdiction is one of the keypoints to its success, which contains high political wisdom, accommodates the historic developments and contempory needs of Korean constitutionalism, and well deals with the relationship between system transplantation and localization.Chapter Three reviews the constitutional status and the organization of Korean Constitutional Court. The constitutional court system is an outcome of the dissolution and reconstruction of the tradidtional western system of checks and balances, which gives birth to the newly state power of constitutional adjudication besides the original legislative, administrative and judicial power. In addition, the Constitutional Court is a political institution that is independent from the legislative, administrative and judicial institutions and fullfils the function of protecting the constitutional order and implementing the constitution through adjudication. Based on the above understanding, the author then discusses the relationship between the Constitutional Court and other state institutions from two perspectives, one is their static relationship that exists in the constitution context, and the other is their dynamic relationship that comes into being in the constitutionalism practice. The organization framework of the Korean Constitutional Court shows obvious U.S.-style characters, in which the justice is the center.Chapter Four is about the jurisdiction and procedure of the court. According to the Constitutional Court Act, the Constitutional Court is empowered to adjudicate on the constitutionality of statutes at the request of ordinary courts, on impeachment motions, on dissolution proceedings of political parties, on competence disputes between agencies of the central government, between the central and local governments, or between local governments, and on constitutional complaints as provided by law. The jurisdiction of the Korean Constitutional Court well meets the real needs of Korean's constitutionalism construction since the political transformation for its suitable coverage, clear classification and definite functions. The procedure and the decision of the Constitutional Court reflect the wisdom of judicial techniques. The general adjudication procedure is applicated in all kinds of the jurisdictions; well each kind of the special adjudication procedures could only be applicated in its corresponding jurisdiction. The decision is the product of the jurisdiction and bears the weight of the whole system. The Korean Constitutional Court has made significant technical innovation on its decision by transplanting other countries' practice into the Korean system.The Fifth and final Chapter analyses the function of Constitutional Court in Korea's constitutionalism construction. The constitutional court system established in the process of political transformation has exerted its notable functions in the aspects of democratic politics, rule of law and human rights protection; therefore, it has been considering one of the most remarkable achievements in Korea's development of constitutionalism. In the passed two decades, the practice of Constitutional Court of Korea has changed the Korean people's attitude twards the constitution and the law, improved their understanding on the democratic politics and rule of law, and also encouraged their pursuance of better human rights situation.In the epilogue of this paper, the author proposes four revelatory remarks: firstly, it is crucial to establish the constitutional adjudication system relying on the real condition of a country's constitutionalism construction; secondly, the centralized mode constitutional adjudication system is a better choice for those developing countries; thirdly, the developing countries should enhance the specialization and professionalism of its constitutional adjudication system; and finally, the efforts to improve its constitutional adjudication system should be oriented by the real needs of the constitutionalism construction and pursue the actual effects. Besides its successful side, the Korean constitutional court system still has obvious defects that are urgent to be correctted: firstly, the the Court's jurisdiction is comparatively too narrow to better meet the needs; secondly, the procedural doorsill of constitutional adjudication is too high to a certain extent; thirdly, the Court's decision is lack of institutional protection in the aspect of binding force.