Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Cho, Kuk --- "The Reformed Criminal Procedure of Post-Democratization South Korea" [2010] ELECD 253; in Cho, Kuk (ed), "Litigation in Korea" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Litigation in Korea

Editor(s): Cho, Kuk

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848443396

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The Reformed Criminal Procedure of Post-Democratization South Korea

Author(s): Cho, Kuk

Number of pages: 29

Extract:

3. The reformed criminal procedure of
post-democratization South Korea
Kuk Cho

I. INTRODUCTION
The nationwide June Struggle of 1987 led to the collapse of Korea's authori-
tarian regime and opened a road toward democratization.1 Under the authori-
tarian regime, the `crime control' value had dominated over the `due process'
value in regard to criminal procedure.2 The Constitution's Bill of Rights was
merely nominal, and criminal law and procedure were no more than instru-
ments for maintaining the regime and suppressing dissidents. It was not a coin-
cidence that the June Struggle was sparked by the death of a dissident student
tortured during police interrogation.3
The new 1987 Constitution brought a significant change in the theory and
practice of the Korean criminal procedure. Explicitly stipulating the idea of
due process in criminal procedure,4 the Bill of Rights in the Constitution has
become a living document.5 The 1988, 1995 and 2007 revisions to the
Criminal Procedure Code6 (CPC) have also strengthened the procedural rights
of criminal suspects and defendants and have reconstructed the entirety of
criminal procedure. Further, the newly established Constitutional Court and
the Supreme Court have made important decisions.

1 For information regarding the June Struggle, see James M. West and Edward J.
Baker, The 1987 Constitutional Reforms in South Korea: Electoral Processes and Judicial
Independence, in Human Rights in Korea: Historical and Policy Perspectives 221 (1991).
2 For information regarding these two competing values in criminal process,
see Herbert L. Packer, ...